Truth Hurts
by da1redgem
Summary: There’s a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita… Christian and Trish are also in the story.
1. Chapter 1

-1Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Lita burst through the door of the women's locker room. She didn't even want to look at another human being's face at the moment. She'd never imagined things getting this bad when she signed that contract to join the WWE.

She was sick of being talked down to. She was sick of being viewed as just a nice body and pretty face. Did her opinion not matter at all around here? She pulled her shirt over her head angrily and threw it across the room.

'_Women aren't real wrestlers Lita. They're expendable. We can get rid of one pretty face and put another one there. So, if I were you, I would keep my mouth shut.' _

Lita thought back to the meeting of all the Raw superstars that day with her favorite boss, the General Manager, Eric Bischoff. He didn't respect the females at all. Disgust filled her as she thought of him.

All she'd done was ask one simple question. One simple, valid question. When was the Women's Title going to be defended again? It had probably been over a month since the title had even been thought of. Instead of wasting time with those damn Bra and Panties matches, they could be having real matches.

Of course, good old Eric didn't like that opinion. He believed that the only thing the women were good for was participating in those degrading matches and walking around half-naked. That wasn't why Lita had become a wrestler. She didn't become a wrestler just to make sick, disgusting men happy. She wanted to actually wrestle.

But she'd already known what Bischoff's opinion would be. It was the response from the rest of the men in the locker room which ticked her off.

'_You should just stay in a woman's place and be quiet. Let the men handle this.' 'Lita, that's not an important issue we need to address in this meeting. The World Heavyweight Championship is way more important.' _

The so-called decent men didn't even try to defend her in any kind of way. That was the cost of being the only woman brave enough to speak up about the situation.

And to top off her shitty day, she'd lost to Victoria. Victoria was a great wrestler but lately, she hadn't won any matches without cheating somehow. Lita knew she could beat Victoria on an okay day, but she'd lost fair and square tonight.

She plopped down on the couch, leaning over and unlacing both of her boots. As she pulled off her boots, she heard knocking at the door. It had to be a man. No one was in there but her. Most of the other women had either left early or gone out to eat. She wasn't exactly in the mood to go out. She'd just taken a long walk after her match, wanting to avoid all people.

The knocking broke her train of thought. Maybe if she stayed quiet, they would go away. She stared closely at the door, praying they'd leave. She jumped as they knocked even harder and faster. Damnit, they were persistent. They had to know that someone was in the room because they damn sure weren't leaving anytime soon.

She stood, walking to the door. Maybe when she gave them a piece of her mind, they'd get the message and leave her alone. She pulled the door open.

Oh great, as though her day couldn't get any worse. "No one's here but me, so you can go." She tried to shut the door, but he put his hand up, blocking her effort.

"Someone's in a really bad mood." She noticed how his eyes scanned down her body and she remembered that she only had on her bra and wrestling shorts. She didn't care though. It wasn't like he hadn't seen her in less.

"What the hell do you want Jericho?"

A smug smirk spread across his face as he brought his eyes back up to hers. "I was actually looking for you."

"Oh great." She turned away from him, sitting back down on the couch. She knew him. He wasn't going away until he'd aggravated the hell out of her. She didn't notice that he'd closed the door behind himself and locked it.

"So, you lost to Victoria." He crossed his arms over his chest, pressing his lips together, trying to contain his laughter.

"And now you're here to rub it in." She didn't bother looking up at him. She pulled her bag over to her, digging through it.

"I know you can beat her. What happened?"

"I guess I'm having a bad day." She continued to look through her bag, although in all honesty, she had no clue what she was looking for.

"Could it have anything to do with the meeting earlier?"

She finally looked at him. He stood there, still smirking, watching her. She couldn't believe she was actually having a conversation with this man. "What the hell do you care?" She stood and walked right up to him, staring eye to eye with him. She liked showing him that he didn't intimidate her at all. She would never back down from him. "Why don't you just cut to the chase? What new smart-ass joke do you have for me today? What new ways have you thought of to torture me?"

He didn't back down from her either. He stared at her just as defiantly. That was something that aggravated her so much about the man standing in front of her. She could never win with him. And she definitely hated losing.

"I didn't think of any jokes today. I'm sure my presence alone tortures you." Damn that smirk.

"Why won't you ever leave me alone Chris? It's like you enjoy pissing me off. How about you stop being so damn selfish and think about someone else for once? We're not friends. So, there's no need for you to talk to me."

Although his smile stayed intact, she could see something in his eyes weaken for a second. Maybe she could actually get through to him for once.

"You're right. I do enjoy pissing you off." She sighed, her frown growing deeper. "And you call me selfish. You're about as selfish as anyone else. Remember way back when we actually were friends? Remember?"

"Don't go there." She turned away from him. Her blood was boiling now. He knew exactly how to get her worked up.

"Oh, looks like I've struck a nerve. What is it, Li? You can't take the truth. You always seem to think it's okay to point out everyone else's faults but your own."

That was enough. She'd had it. She spun back around, getting right in his face, just mere inches away from him. She pointed her finger at him irately. "First of all, don't call me Li! Second of all, you don't know a damn thing about me!"

Her face had turned almost as red as her hair. She felt like she could explode at that moment. He remained calm, but the smile had faded from his face. "I don't know one thing about you, huh?"

"No, you don't.", she spat out at him.

He nodded slowly, never taking his eyes off of hers. He'd be damned if he let her win this. He suddenly grabbed her face in his hands, crushing his lips against hers. She pushed at his chest, trying to free herself from his grip. He was holding on too tight. She found herself pushing less and less, until she stopped completely.

God, what was she doing? Why couldn't she fight him? Instead her hands were now running up his chest and into his hair and she was kissing him back. She should be resisting him, but she was giving in. Her brain was telling her to knee him or something but her body would do nothing but surrender.

His hold on her face loosened as the kiss deepened. He ran his tongue through her mouth expertly. A deep moan escaped her as he ran his tongue along the roof of her mouth. She pulled his hair tie out of his hair as he tilted his head, trying to gain better access to her mouth. She shuddered as he ran his hands down the bare skin on her arms, coming to rest on her waist.

He pushed her back to the table in the room. She gripped the edge of the table. He stopped kissing her and went to her neck. She licked her lips as he licked and nibbled at the sensitive skin on her neck. His mouth was hot on her skin. She was shocked when she moaned disappointedly as he left her neck.

Chris placed his hands on her waist again, easily lifting her onto the table behind her. She made sure she sat right on the edge, so she could still feel his body pressed against hers. He went back to kissing her throat. He worked his way down, leaving a hot trail to the crevice formed by her breasts. He grabbed one of her breasts in his hand, squeezing it gently through the bra as he licked at the exposed areas. She let her head fall back, leaving her body at his discretion.

Chris lifted his head, seeming to hesitate. Lita didn't ask any questions, waiting to see what he was going to do. He licked his lips, staring intently at her lower body. She gasped when he suddenly went for the button on her shorts. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, pulling him closer. She immediately went for his mouth, sighing softly into it as she felt his need for her.

She ran her hands under his t-shirt, her touch causing his muscles to jump. She felt him struggling to get her shorts off and she lifted up to help him out. The shorts fell to her feet and she kicked her legs out of them. She immediately locked her legs around his waist again, still needing his closeness. Chris then worked on the button to his own jeans, not wanting to wait any longer.

Lita reached down between them, just as eager as he was, and took hold of him. He groaned deep in his throat at the feel of her hand wrapped around him. She ran her hands up and down his length a few times, causing him to grow even stiffer than he already was. Her face still hadn't left his yet.

The more she pulled and squeezed, the closer he came to losing control. He grabbed her hand, reluctantly stopping her. He stopped kissing her. He didn't know what he was doing. He hadn't meant to go this far. It was just supposed to be a simple kiss. Now, he was afraid they'd gone too far to stop. He stepped back slightly, although her legs stayed locked around him.

Lita sighed softly. She brought her hand up, gently caressing his face. "Please, don't stop now Chris." She pressed her forehead against his. She leaned in, pressing a kiss to his lips.

Damn, he couldn't resist her. Chris kissed her more fiercely. He traced his finger along the hem of her thong. A sharp gasp escaped her as he suddenly pushed her thong aside and entered her. She tightened her legs around his waist, trying to feel him deeper inside of her.

Chris increased the pace of his thrusting, in response to her heavy pants of need. Lita laid her head on his shoulder and dug her nails through his shirt, into the skin on his back. He continued to pump in and out of her, causing her pants to turn into moans. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit down on his lip at the feel of her burning heat around him and the sound of her soft moans.

Lita brought her hands up to his hair, tangling the blonde strands around her fingers. She brought her mouth to his ear, breathing heavily into it. That action alone caused Chris to growl deep in his throat.

Her breathing grew even heavier as she felt herself coming closer and closer to her climax. She hugged him tighter, laying her head on his shoulder again, as he began to move faster. "Oh, Chris." She moaned loudly as she lost herself, shivers running through her body.

Chris couldn't hold on long after he felt her tighten around him, knowing that she had reached her climax. He released into her, holding her close to him.

Lita raised her head after a few moments and pressed her forehead against his. She stared into his eyes. She couldn't describe exactly what she was feeling as she looked into his blue eyes.

Chris cleared his throat and stepped back from her. He turned away from her and straightened himself up, buttoning up his pants. He heard Lita slide off the table, and some shuffling followed. He figured she was putting her shorts back on. Soon, a silence filled the room. The tension in the air was thick.

"Chris…" The soft whisper seemed so loud in the silent room. Chris turned around, meeting her eyes. The woman he saw was nothing like the woman he'd been speaking to maybe a half an hour ago. She had her arms wrapped around herself, seeming a lot more vulnerable than earlier. He inhaled deeply before speaking.

"You know what…you're way too easy. Who would've guessed you would spread your legs so quickly for me?"

She stood there speechless, staring at him in shock with her eyebrows deeply furrowed. He could see the glistening of tears in her eyes.

"Thanks for the good time."

Lita couldn't move a muscle. She was frozen in place, taking in the words that had been spouted off at her. She jumped, as the door slammed shut.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Trish hummed softly to herself as she brushed through her golden locks. She placed her brush on the dresser as she heard knocking at the door. She continued to hum as she made her way over to the door. Whoever was behind the door was lucky they'd caught her just before she'd gone to bed.

"Oh my God. What's wrong?" Trish nearly lost balance as her taller friend practically fell into her arms. She tried to compose herself and comfort the sobbing woman in her arms. She closed the door and worked her friend over to the couch in the room.

"Sweetie, talk to me. What's wrong?" The redhead continued to sob uncontrollably in her best friend's arms. Trish could not even begin to imagine what had upset her friend to that extent. She realizes that she wasn't going to get anything out of the redhead for a while. So, she sat back, cradling her friend in her arms, running her hands through her hair.

It was a few minutes before Lita's sobs seemed to soften. Eventually, no sounds besides sniffling came from her. Lita continued to lay against her friend. Trish waited for her friend to let her know what was going on. She didn't want to push her.

"I had sex with him Trish."

Trish's eyebrows furrowed. She wasn't sure if she'd heard her friend correctly. "What?"

"I had sex with him."

The blonde stared off in front of her, finally taking in what she'd heard. She sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Please don't tell me…" Trish didn't want to say what she knew was true. She felt her friend nod against her.

"Yeah. I had sex with Chris."

Trish sighed again. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Oh honey…"

Lita sat up, looking at her friend through her red, swollen eyes. "I felt so…God, Trish. I can't even describe it. I just thought I was seeing a side of Chris that I hadn't seen in so long. I was seeing a side of him that I thought I'd never see again." She shook her head. She tried fighting the sobs that were about to take her over again. After a few moments, she calmed down a little bit. "He told me that I was really easy and that he hadn't expected me to…spread my legs for him so fast." The tears began to fall down her face again.

Trish placed a comforting hand on her friend's knee. "What a bastard. Honey, I'm so sorry."

Lita shook her head furiously yet again. "I'm so mad at myself. I can't believe I let myself go for that. I can't believe I let myself be that vulnerable. I knew better. And I still…Trish, I begged him not to stop. He must have enjoyed that so much." A wave of disgust washed over her.

"It's really not your fault Lita. After everything…"

"I know, I know Trish. But I should have been on guard. I know Chris. I know his games. I hate that I let this happen." She leaned over and held her head in her hands between her knees.

Trish wasn't sure what to say. Even after all this time, she couldn't believe that Chris would be such an asshole. It had been almost a year since Chris had completely turned on all of his friends, but she still couldn't believe that he would do such a thing, especially to Lita. But what more could she expect considering what he'd done to her a year ago?

Trish jumped as her friend suddenly shot up off the couch.

"Trish, I hate him. I hate him so much! He thinks he can just keep playing around with me. He thinks he can just walk all over me." Lita turned around to face her friend. Trish felt chills go through her spine as she saw the look in her best friend's eyes. "I'm not gonna let him get away with it. I can't."

Chris marched into his hotel room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Whoa! It is 2:30 in the morning. You can't just walk around slamming doors. Speaking of that, where have you been?"

Chris didn't even bother to look in the direction of his roommate and best friend. He threw his gym bag in the corner and went straight to the bathroom.

Christian eyed the bathroom door curiously. After a few moments, he shouted at the door. "Let me guess! You slept with some chick after Raw and her boyfriend came and almost beat the shit out of you."

After a couple of moments, the door to the bathroom swung open and Chris stood in the doorway. He glared at his best friend and continued to walk over to his gym bag.

"Oh…so you did have sex with some chick. I know you all too well Chris."

Chris continued to ignore his friend. He then decided to pick up his bag and carry it into his room. He didn't feel like hearing all of this from Christian. Chris turned around after picking up his bag and found his roommate standing in his way.

"So, who was she Chris? Where did you meet her? And how did she get your panties in a bunch because you usually don't act like this after you get laid?"

Chris just stared at his friend until he finished talking and then attempted to walk around him. Christian, however, stepped in front of him, blocking his effort.

"Christian, I am really not in the mood for this." Chris's nostrils were practically flaring and his chest was rising heavily with his growing anger.

"Dude, what's going on?" Christian's smile faded from his face. He was beginning to realize how angry his friend actually was.

Chris sighed, seeming to calm down a bit. He dropped his bag on the floor and walked around to the couch, falling down on it. "Christian, I…uh…."

Christian sat down in the armchair, watching his friend intently, hanging off his every word. "You…uh….what?"

"I went to the women's locker room and Lita was there."

"Uh-oh." Christian knew that wasn't a good combination. Lita and Chris couldn't stand each other; they practically hated each other's guts.

"We, umm…we kinda…had sex."

Christian sat back in his chair and scratched his head. "Wait…come again."

Chris stared off in front of him, looking as though the idea were still new and shocking to him as well. "I had sex with her."

"Wow. I can't believe that."

"Oh. It gets better. I told her that she was easy afterwards."

"Oooo…that's harsh." Christian watched his friend rise from the couch and pace the room.

"I know. I just…I couldn't believe that we went that far. I hadn't meant for us to…you know." Chris stopped at the window of the hotel room, staring out into the black of the night sky. "I can't go back Jay. I can't."

Christian listened carefully. He knew what his friend was referring to. "Chris, you still love her, don't you?"

There was a long pause. "I do, but-"

"No buts. Maybe you should just stop pushing her away and tell her the truth."

Chris shook his head. "No, I can't do that. Lita and I being together is not good for either of us."

"You don't know that until you try." Christian tried to hide the frustration in his voice.

"We did try! Are you forgetting that Jay?" Chris's eyes shot in the direction of his best friend. He stepped toward the man sitting in the chair. "It didn't work. We're not meant to be together."

"So, you think this way is better? You making her hate your guts more and more everyday?"

Chris sighed. "I don't do it on purpose. I do love her but sometimes I just look at her and I think back and I get so angry."

"She was wrong Chris. We all know that. But it's been a year. People change. You should talk to her."

Chris plopped back down on the couch. "I can't. I can't forget."

"Chris…by now, you've made just as many mistakes as she has. And if you haven't realized, it's not getting the two of you anywhere."

Chris sat there in silence, seeming to contemplate his entire situation. He stood up, throwing his hands up in frustration. "I don't know what to do anymore. It's like as much as I try to stay away from her, I somehow keep ending up near her. I need to just cut her out. Cut her out of my life period." He began to walk toward his bedroom. He paused just short of the door. "For now on, I will not talk to, talk about, or even think about her. I need her out of my life."

Christian watched his friend enter the room and shut the door behind him. "You are making such a big mistake Chris."


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"I can't believe Bischoff actually gave you a match for the WWE championship."

Christian stood with Chris in the hallway, trying to pump him up for his match against the champion, John Cena.

"Who would have guessed? He must have been a really good mood."

"Hmm…I wonder what gets our boss in a good mood."

Chris gave his friend a look of disgust. "I don't even want to know." He hit his hand against his leg repeatedly. He was so nervous he couldn't stop moving. It had been so long since he'd competed for the title. "You know? The last time I fought for the title was so long ago. Way back when…"

"You and Lita were together?"

Chris ignored his friend, staring at the monitor which was showing the usual match with Big Show beating down some new wrestler.

"You wish she was going out there with you. You wish that she was going to be there to support you. You're not sure if you can do this without her-"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! I told you not to talk about her anymore." Chris walked away from his best friend, toward the curtain that led to the ramp.

"Hey, you kinda brought it up."

Chris sent a glare in Christian's direction. His eyes shot in the direction of the curtain as Big Show's music began to blare through the arena. "Okay, it's time."

Christian patted Chris's shoulder. "Good luck man. You better win the title tonight."

"We'll see."

The two blonde Canadians watched as a smiling, energetic Big Show came through the curtain, shortly followed by the exhausted, beaten new guy.

After a few moments, Chris's music began to play and he made his way to the curtain, sending his best friend one last look of uncertainty. He then got into character and marched through the curtains.

Lita felt her heart swell as she watched the television set in her locker room. She watched as Chris Jericho made his way to the ring for his championship match. He was usually arrogant and overly confident before his matches. But she saw something different in him this time. He looked a little worried and unsure.

"Whatever." Lita flipped off the television. She didn't care if he was nervous or not. As far as she was concerned, it would be great if he lost.

Lita looked in the direction of the door as it swung open. Trish entered with a worried look on her face. The blonde's eyes shifted to the television set, noticing that it was turned off. "Are you alright?"

"I'm peachy.", Lita said without even cracking a smile.

Trish came over and sat down beside her on the couch. "I wanted to come and check on you. We haven't really been able to talk much in the last week."

"It's getting better. I guess I just needed some time. I'll get over it."

Trish smiled. "Good. I'm glad. Do you need anything? Do you want me to get you anything?"

Lita managed to laugh a little bit. "Trish, I didn't break my leg. I'm fine. I've learned how to deal. My heart's been broken before."

Trish nodded approvingly and looked around the room. Lita stared at her friend in the silence. "There's somewhere you need to go, isn't there?"

Trish seemed to snap back into reality at her friend's words. "What?"

"Trish, you can go. Really, I'm fine. Please, don't sit here worrying about me. Do what you have to do."

The blonde smiled at her best friend and hugged her. "I'm glad you're alright. I'll talk to you later." Trish stood from the couch and made her way to the door, looking back at her friend one more time to confirm that she was fine. Lita put on a big smile for her and watched as the door closed behind her. The smile quickly faded from her face as she turned the television back on.

The two men were down on the mat as the referee stood counting to ten. As the referee made it to eight, Chris began to rise from the mat. She couldn't stand watching this. She could have sworn she felt her blood boiling. Her anger was overcoming her. She quickly cut off the television again.

"I can't take this." She rose from the couch and exited her locker room.

"Come in!" Christian grabbed a towel and dried off his hands. He left the bathroom and caught sight of who had entered the locker room. A smile came to his face. "Hey babe."

He approached the woman in the room, wrapping his arms around her. He held her close for a few moments, taking in her scent. He loved the strawberry scent she wore. It was how he knew whenever she was near.

"I missed you." She whispered in his ear.

"I missed you too." He pulled back and placed a kiss against her lips. He grabbed her much smaller hand in his and pulled her over to the couch. "We need to talk. Our friends are having some issues."

Trish nodded. "I know. I just talked to Lita. I can tell she's still upset. Why would Chris do something like that?"

"He's pushing her away. He doesn't think they should be together."

"That doesn't excuse anything. That was really low Jay."

Christian groaned. "You know, we're never gonna agree on this. You don't believe what Chris said Lita did and I don't believe that everything is Chris's fault. I'd really rather not fight about this."

Trish sighed and brought her hand up to his cheek. "You're right. Let's not go there." She smiled brightly. She felt so good being near him. "We need to work out better arrangements. I hate going almost a whole week without alone time with you. What are you doing tonight?"

"Maybe celebrating with Chris if he wins the title." He pouted softly. "Maybe I can sneak to your room after that. You have a single again right?"

She rolled her eyes at herself. "I'm sorry. I forgot. I told Lita she could stay with me. What are we going to do?"

He pulled her into his arms, running his arms up and down her arms. "We'll find a way. It'll work out." He pressed a kiss to her head.

Trish looked across the room, noticing for the first time that the television was on. She jumped up out of Christian's arms and off the couch. "Oh my God!"

"What-" Christian cut off, finally seeing what Trish was screaming about. "Oh no…"

Chris didn't know if he had the strength to finish the match. He pushed himself off of the ground. All he needed to do was put Cena in the Walls of Jericho. He grabbed his side as he rose from the ground.

There was a person standing in front of him as he stood. It couldn't be Cena because he was down on the ground behind him. And he knew the referee had been knocked out in the corner. He shut his eyes tightly to clear his vision.

"What the hell are you doing!"

Chris stumbled backwards, clutching at his face as the person's hand suddenly came across his face. He tried to shake off the painful stinging. As he looked at the smaller person again, he saw that their hand was fast approaching his face yet again. He quickly put his hand up, grabbing their wrist.

He had no time to think before the person in front of him brought their leg up between his legs. He muttered curses to himself as he fell to his knees, from the sharp pain. He felt tears in his eyes from the throbbing.

The person in front of him knelt down and leaned in really close to his ear. "How do you like that baby?"

Lita smiled devilishly as she rose to her feet again. She watched him writhe in pain with enjoyment. She looked behind him, seeing that John Cena was getting up, slowly but surely. She ducked through the ropes and hopped down from the apron. She watched on as she walked backwards up the ramp.

Chris got to his feet and turned around but was met by an F-U from Cena. Coincidently, the referee began to gain consciousness and get to his feet. Cena went for the pin. Lita gazed on, almost in a euphoric trance, as the referee counted one, two, three.

John Cena's music began to play, signaling the official end of the match. Chris had lost his championship match and Lita couldn't help the great wave of satisfaction that overcame her. It gave new meaning to the saying: payback's a bitch.


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"Lita, what were you thinking?" Lita couldn't stop smiling as Trish ran up to her behind the curtain.

"I don't know, but I had to do it. And I feel so much better now."

Trish stared at her friend incredulously. "Let's get out of here. Chris is gonna kill you."

Lita knew he would be angry. But she had never imagined him trying to hurt her. As a matter of fact, she was sure he wouldn't hurt her. She wasn't sure why she was so certain of that.

The redhead snapped out of her trance, feeling her friend pulling on her arm. "Come on. Let's go before Chris comes through the curtain." The little blonde pulled Lita down the hall.

Moments later, Chris came busting through the curtain. He clutched his throbbing head. He saw his best friend coming down the hallway toward him. "Are you okay?"

"Where is she?" Chris asked forcefully and angrily.

"Calm down-"

"Where the hell is she!" Chris winced as he yelled.

"I honestly don't know. She was gone before I ran up to you." Christian swallowed hard as he lied. He'd known Trish had gone to get Lita before everything blew up. They'd run down the hall past him. "Chris, you're not planning on hurting her, are you? Remember, you made a promise. You promised you would never hurt her again."

Chris stared at his best friend, his expression unchanging. He then walked around him, stomping off down the hallway.

"Chris, don't do anything crazy!" Chris ignored his friend, already halfway down the hall. "Oh damn.", Christian muttered to himself.

"Trish, please. I just want to go to the soda machine. I'm not gonna be afraid of running into Chris forever." Lita pleaded with her friend to let her out of the hotel room for at least two minutes.

"Lita…you cost Chris the title. I'm sure he's a little more than pissed." Trish couldn't erase the look of worry from her face. She felt like Lita was really downplaying the whole situation.

Lita sighed and sat down on Trish's bed. "Wanna know a little secret? I'm really not worried about Chris hurting me. I just know that he wouldn't. And besides, I'm not gonna be a weak fool around Chris anymore. I can't let him have that upper hand. I can't let him control my every thought and move all the time." She gave Trish a assuring smile. "I'm just gonna run to the soda machine. I'll be fine."

Trish shook her head, giving up. There was no winning with that girl. "Okay. Do what you'd like."

The redhead smiled brightly, almost bouncing as she left the room. She couldn't help but feel so proud of herself. She couldn't believe she'd finally retaliated against Chris after all he'd done to her. It was about time she stopped sitting back and crying about everything he did to her.

She walked down the hallway in the direction she'd remembered seeing the soda machine. Gosh, the soda machine was a lot farther than she'd thought. She squealed as she was suddenly pulled into a room.

Lita turned around, just as soon as the door clicked shut and was locked. She swallowed hard as her eyes met the furious blue ones of Chris Jericho. She couldn't look intimidated. She couldn't let him win again. She noticed how heavily he was breathing. God, she hadn't seen him that angry since…

"Leave me the hell alone." She attempted to walk around him and make her way toward the door. But she was stopped as he grabbed each of her shoulders and pushed her back against a wall. She gasped at the sudden force with which she hit the wall. It hadn't really hurt but the sudden action had surprised her. She couldn't help but notice how close he was to her now, just mere centimeters away from her face.

He hadn't changed from his wrestling gear. He looked like a mess. Her guess was that he'd been looking for her ever since they'd left the arena. The feisty redhead returned the glare that he was sending her. She couldn't back down.

"Why did you do that?" His voice was surprisingly calm.

"Oh, you don't remember?", she asked sarcastically. "Last week. Remember the _good time_ you had at my expense? Remember that?", she spat out at him. He made her so damn angry. Chris didn't respond but his expression did soften.

"Speechless, huh Chris? It doesn't feel very good at all. It kinda hurts, doesn't it? I want you to remember that every time you think about me. The pain you feel right now is nothing compared to the pain you've caused me." Lita couldn't help the tears that came to her eyes. She noticed that his grip on her was slowly loosening. She could easily get away if she wanted to, but she didn't try. She wanted him to know what effect he'd had on her.

"All you've done over the last year is hurt me and you seem to enjoy it so much. I can't believe that someone who once upon a time claimed they loved me could do that to me. By now, I don't think I can ever forgive you. I was so in love with you Chris. I would have done anything for you. And then you just turned on me." She paused, feeling like she could break down right there. But she wouldn't do that. She needed him to hear what she had to say. "It's hard to believe that I ever loved you so much because, right now, all I feel for you is hate. I hate you so much."

She bit down on her bottom lip, staring into his blue eyes. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. His gaze had weakened dramatically, from anger to sadness. Yet he had not looked away once. He had just listened carefully and intently.

Chris let go of her, breaking eye contact with her for the first time. He turned away from her, without saying a word. Had her words had that much of an effect on him? She couldn't believe that she'd gotten something through to the heartless Chris Jericho. She watched him saunter across the room to the wall. He sat down on the floor, against the wall, staring at a spot on the floor.

Lita wasn't sure if it was an act or not. She hated that part of her that wanted to go sit beside him and pull him into her arms. She wasn't going to let that happen. She would never be a pawn in his game again. Whatever was left of their relationship was gone for now on. She didn't even want their names mentioned in the same sentence ever again.

The redhead walked toward the door. As far as she was concerned, they were over. She pulled the door open, looking at Chris one last time and exited the room.


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"_Chris? Baby? Wake up. You have to get up sweetie." _

_He smiled, feeling her soft touch on his bare skin. She was gently shaking him, in her subtle way of trying to wake him up. He loved just laying in the bed, so that he could have her do this. And the sound of her voice was like heaven._

"_Do we have to go through this every morning?", she asked in an almost whining way. "Come on now. Get up."_

_He continued to lay there, ignoring her pleas. The longer he could stretch this out, the better._

"_Okay. Fine. Stay there. I guess I'll be flying out to California without you."_

_Oh damn. He groaned as she began to get off of the bed. His body fought to resist the sleep that was trying to take over. "Is it really time already?", his voice was laced with sleep, coming out scratchily._

"_Yes. Now come on and get up. Or we won't be able to do that thing we wanted to do on the plane."_

"_What thing-" His eyes shot open. "Oh, that thing.", he stated with a wide grin. He sat up in the bed, rubbing at his eyes._

"_There you go. You can do it. Come on now. Just throw your legs over the edge. That's it. You can do it. Yes!" She clapped mock-encouragingly with a bright smile on her face._

"_Ha-ha. Very funny." He yawned as he stood straight up, stretching as far out as possible._

"_Mmm…sexy." She walked out of the room. He laughed to himself. He loved that about her. She had such an amazing sense of humor. Anything she said or did could change his entire mood. He wasn't sure when he'd realized that she'd had such a dramatic effect on him. Sometimes it scared him how much he was in love with her. A long time ago, he couldn't have even imagined himself being in love. But now, he wasn't sure he could live without her. He sat back down on the bed._

"_Chris, what are you doing? Get off the bed. We have to get out of here on time." She leaned into her hip, crossing her arms over her chest. She was fully dressed already, eager to leave. Chris just watched her silently, smiling to himself. "What the hell? Chris…stop playing with me. I'm really serious. If we miss this plane, I'm going to kill you." She glared at him, not even a trace of a smile evident on her face. She always tried to pretend to be angry with him, but Chris knew better. She wasn't really._

"_We need to talk. Come here." He patted a spot on the bed beside him. She watched him skeptically, but decided to go along with his little game._

"_I hope you're not trying to stall and talk me out of going. We've gone over this a million times. This is my cousin's baby shower and as much as you don't want to go, it's really important that I'm there. She's practically my best friend and this is her first child. And I really want you there with me, so that my family can see how important you are to me. Besides they love you. They would kill me if you weren't there."_

"_Are you done?" Chris smirked as her glare returned and she looked like she could kill him. "Okay…I love you."_

_She stared at him in confusion. "Ummm…I love you too…Is that what you wanted to say?"_

_He sighed, shaking his head. "No, I mean…I'm in love with you. I realized that I can't see my life anymore without you in it. I want to marry you some day. I want us to move into a big house. You, me, and our kids. I want us to have lots of kids."_

_Her eyes filled with tears and she looked away. He noticed the sadness etched in her face._

"_Honey, what's wrong?" He hesitated, dreading the answer to his next question. "Do you not want any of that?"_

"_No, no. I do want that stuff." She looked at him, the tears finally streaming down her cheeks. "I just…oh God." She flung herself into his arms as the sobs began to overcome her. _

_He held her close, gently caressing her hair to try to soothe her. He couldn't figure out what had upset her so much. "Babe, please tell me what's going on."_

_She took in a few deep breaths, trying to stop the tears. She sat up and stared at him through red, blurry eyes. "I just didn't know that you felt that way. I love you too Chris. I love you so much." She wrapped her arms around his neck again. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."_

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa." He pushed her back, looking into her eyes. "Now why are you sorry?"_

_She shook her head at herself and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry for being all over-emotional. I didn't mean to freak you out. I guess everything's just getting to me lately."_

_He stared at her, part of him doubting what she was saying. "Are you sure that's all that's wrong?"_

_She smiled through her tears. "I'm positive." She stood up, wiping at her eyes again. She began to walk toward the door._

"_Li, are you really sure everything's okay? Lately, you've been waking up way earlier than me and you just seem a little stressed."_

_She turned to him. "I guess it was just anticipating this baby shower. I just can't believe my cousin is having a baby. It's pretty scary." _

_Chris nodded, although he was still not convinced. "Okay…" He watched her walk from the room. _

Chris struggled to open his eyes. He could sense someone else in the bed with him. Was his dream real? There was no way that she could be there in the bed with him. He groaned as his head began to throb.

"Damn.", he muttered. He must have gotten wasted the night before.

"Good morning sweetie."

He lifted his heavy eyelids to meet the eyes of an unfamiliar girl. "Did you sleep as well as I did?" She giggled. She laid her hand on his chest and began to move it around in little circles. "You look so cute." She giggled yet again.

He could do nothing but stare into the blue eyes of the bubbly, young-looking blonde. Even worse, he'd slept with a random chick the night before.

"Awww…what's the matter? Are you still sleepy honey?" That laugh again. He wanted to shoot himself. He could still do nothing but stare on.

"I'd always imagined that you were amazing in bed. But after last night, wow!"

Chris shut his eyes tightly, wishing she would just disappear. His eyes then shot open frantically. He shot up, much to the blonde's surprise and looked around anxiously. He breathed out a huge sigh of relief and fell back down to the bed.

She giggled once again and reached over him, taking the object, which had relieved him so, in her hand. "Don't worry. I figured you weren't quite ready to have a little one running around." She tossed the empty condom wrapper into the trash basket across the room, exclaiming proudly as the piece of plastic met it's target. At least she'd had some kind of common sense.

Both of their heads snapped in the direction of the door as it opened.

"Oh Jesus." Christian gaped at the sight before his eyes. "So, this is what you were doing last night."

Chris groaned, bringing his hand up to his head, trying to ease some of the pain.

"Oh my God! You're Christian!" The girl was sitting straight up in the bed, holding the sheet up to her chest, nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Yeah…that's me." A heavy silence filled the room and the girl continued to stare at Christian in amazement. "Well…this is awkward."

The girl giggled. "Wow, I can't believe I'm in the same room as two of the best wrestlers ever!"

"Yeah…I hate to kill this experience for you, but I think you might have to get up and put some clothes on and return to wherever it is that you live."

Chris had fallen back down on the bed, seeming to try to shield himself from this dreadful reality. He continued to lay there for the next few minutes as the young girl, shamelessly got out of the bed and put her clothes back on. Once the door to the room clicked, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching the bed.

He peeked up at Christian, seeing his best friend shaking his head in disappointment. "Damn, you couldn't even find a moderately stable girl to sleep with?"

"I'm not in the mood for any wisecracks today Jay."

Christian hummed softly, as if he were pondering that information. "Okay, well then, are you in the mood to explain how you ended up in this situation?"

"Take a wild guess, Mr. Know-It-All."

"Wild guess…Alcohol plus bad one-night-stand equals…Lita."

Chris did not respond to his friend's statement, still trying to fight the throbbing in his head.

"I'm really worried about you Chris. She's really getting to you again. I thought you were over her, but clearly you are not. I think you need to do something about it and I don't mean trying to push her away. I mean something that actually works effectively."

"Jay, sometimes I really wish you would just mind your own business." Chris groaned as he sat up.

"Ouch. That cuts deep. The hostility. Well, shoot me for trying to help you out. But I guess you're right. Maybe you should be the one trying to fix your own problems." Christian walked away from the bed without another word and made his exit from their room.

_As though today couldn't get any worse_, Chris thought to himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"Hey. What's up?" Trish walked into the locker room, greeting her best friend, and threw her bag down on the bench.

"Nothing much.", The redhead replied cheerily from her spot on the floor, where she was stretching.

The blonde smiled to herself and she tied her hair into a ponytail. "You know, I don't think I ever got to mention it to you. But I really like this new you. You just seem so happy lately. For the past few weeks, you've seemed so lively and so not-depressed. I love it."

Lita smiled to herself as well. "Yeah, I guess so. I really do feel a thousand times better. I guess I have finally found some closure." She reflected back to her last encounter with her ex a few weeks back.

"That's pretty cool. Hey, remember that guy I was telling you about? He lives around here. And he said he would definitely be interested in going out with you."

Lita sighed, pausing in between her stretches. "I told you I'm not ready to date yet."

Trish groaned her agitation. "You haven't been ready to date for over a year. Don't you think it's time to move on-"

"Don't you even say it." Lita pointed a warning finger at her best friend. "I have moved on. I would just rather not jump into anything."

"Li, it's just dating. You wouldn't be signing a marriage certificate. What are you holding out for?"

The two best friends stared at each other. Lita sighed.

"Trish, if this guy is so great, why don't you date him yourself?"

Trish spun back around to her bag. "I'm just not interested. I think he would be better for you. He's more of your type. Plus, we have been friends for a while."

"Hey, you never know. Your friend could turn out to be the one you're meant to be with."

Trish paused her fake-rummaging through her bag. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The two women went back to what they originally were doing. Trish suddenly stopped and looked at her best friend, who had refocused her attention on her stretching. She'd never kept secrets from her before and this one was killing her. She wanted to tell her about Christian. She loved confiding in Lita and it was so hard to not be able to tell her something that was so important to her.

"Lita…"

Lita looked up curiously. "Yeah Trish?"

Trish quickly sought for something to say. She and Christian had an agreement. No one else would know about them. "Umm…I'm not trying to start anything. I just want to make sure that you are completely over Chris. Sometimes, I have doubts. You used to be head over heels in love with him. Are you sure you're over that?"

Lita pulled her legs, ceasing her stretching once again. She looked up to the ceiling as though she were seriously contemplating her answer. "Well, I guess that a part of me still feels something for him. But it's not strong enough to overcome what the rest of me feels."

"Are you absolutely sure of that? Are you sure that you're not just letting your anger blind you to what you really feel?"

Lita stared at Trish incredulously. "Do you want me to get back together with Chris or something?"

Trish took note of the way Lita avoided the question. "No, I was just making sure."

They both looked over at the knock on the door. Trish yelled come in. The door opened and a blonde head peeked in.

"Hey Lita." Christian said softly, as he noticed Lita on the floor.

Lita made a gesture with her head, giving her reply. She and Christian had not talked much since she and Chris had broken up but she didn't have any issues with him.

The blonde man refocused his attention on the blonde woman in front of him. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Trish nodded, never breaking her gaze from his as she followed him out of the room.

They both went into the empty closet across the hall, after checking to make sure that no one was watching. Christian pulled on the string on the light above them and the closet filled with a bright yellow.

"Are you crazy? We're not supposed to give any clues that there is something going on between us." Trish spoke in a harsh whisper. Christian grinned, despite his girlfriend's clear anger.

"I know baby. I'm really sorry. But this is really important. What are you doing tonight?"

Trish eyed him suspiciously. "I don't know. Nothing I guess."

"Well now, you're spending the night with me."

"Wait, what? How? What about Chris?"

"We had a little fight a while back. I'm staying in a single. We just needed some time apart I guess. But, on the brighter side, you know what this means."

Trish smiled devilishly. She ran her tiny hands up his chest. "We get to you know what for the first time."

Christian nodded, leaning in to kiss her. At the last moment, Trish put her hands up to block him.

"Nope, not yet. You have to wait until tonight. She walked her fingers up his chest, across his mouth and onto his nose. "See you tonight."

She left him standing, with his mouth wide open, in the closet and went back into her locker room.

"That was interesting."

Trish was caught off guard by the sound of her best friend's voice. She had gotten caught up in her state of elation. "What was?"

"I wonder what Christian needed to talk to you about." Lita kept her eyes fixed on the mirror as she wiped off the last of her makeup.

"Oh, just silliness. You know Christian." Trish tried to play it off, walking over to the couch, out of the redhead's sight.

There were a few moments of silence between the two women.

"Lita, I think you might be flyin' solo tonight."

"Oh really? Why?"

"I forgot to tell you, but I'm staying in Stacy's room tonight. She just wanted the extra company and I figured it would be okay."

"Oh yeah, sure."

Trish knew the redhead wouldn't question her any further. Lita wasn't one to ask a ton of questions, needing to know everything about what was going on. She shut her eyes tightly. She couldn't wait for her night with Christian. But at the same time it was killing her to keep her relationship from her best friend.

Lita pulled the covers over herself as she lay down in the twin-sized bed. She could barely keep her eyes open. It had certainly been a long day. She clutched her pillow to her head as sleep washed over her.

_She stood staring at herself in the mirror. She was going to do it. She was going to talk to him. She had set her mind on it and was ready. How could she even look at herself? The person she saw disgusted her. She knew what the right thing to do would be, but she just couldn't seem to do it._

_How could she tell him now? He wouldn't understand. Why was this so difficult? She hadn't really done anything wrong? She should just tell him the whole truth. He deserved to know. But she knew that the truth would only bring him pain. She couldn't do it. She couldn't do that to him. _

_She brought her hand up to her stomach, staring at her mirror image._

"_Hey babe."_

"_Oh my God." She quickly spun around, catching sight of her more than baffled boyfriend._

"_Why so surprised?"_

"_I just didn't hear you come in. You scared me."_

"_Seems to be happening a lot lately." He stated, not trying to provoke any kind of response from her, simply making an observation. She laughed nervously. _

"_I guess I'm just a little on edge as of late. But anyways, how's my favorite person in the world? How was your day?" She walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. _

"_It wasn't as good as it could have been without you there." He smiled and pressed a kiss to her lips. "We sound just like some cheesy old, married couple, don't we?"_

"_Yeah, it's kinda scary." She kissed him lightly once again before pulling away and walking in the opposite direction. No, she couldn't tell him. He was so happy. She couldn't ruin everything for him. She cared about him too much for that. _

"_Wait a minute." _

_Her breath caught in her throat as he called to her. Was he on to her? She had to get better at this. She needed to stop giving him signs that something was wrong. For now on, she would live as though nothing had ever happened. She would even believe it herself._

"_Yes…" She spun around, pretending as though nothing were wrong._

"_Where are you going? I just walked in and you're already trying to get away from me." _

_She laughed in relief, but she was sure it came across as though she were laughing at him. He walked up to her, wrapping his arms around her. "No, it's not going to be that easy. I'm not letting you get away from me."_

_She giggled as he leaned down, kissing on her neck. Yes, this was perfect. It should stay this way forever. He should always be happy. _

_She squealed as he suddenly scooped her up in his arms. He carried her into the bedroom, laying her down on the queen-sized mattress. He laid on top of her. "You're mine tonight. And I think it would be a good idea if we were a little quieter tonight. We've been getting a few complaints." He lowered his mouth to her smiling lips. _

_He groaned when she pushed back after a few moments. "What's wrong?"_

"_This is such a mood killer, but let me go to the bathroom first."_

_He laughed at her as he lifted up off of her. She slid off of the bed and made her way to the bathroom which was across the room. She closed the door behind her and immediately turned on the water in the sink. She splashed the cold water onto her face. She looked at her reflection in the mirror again. She needed to make sure she was actually ready for this. It was time to move on. What was done was done. There was no looking back._

_She sighed. Okay, she could do this. She would never think about it again. She had her future with Chris ahead of her. That was where all of her energy needed to go for now on. It needed to go into him. _

_She stared at herself for a few more moments. She wasn't sure how long she'd actually been in the bathroom, but she was sure it was longer than a usual bathroom trip. _

_She finally came out of the bathroom. She looked to the bed, only to find it empty. She looked around the rest of the hotel room. Silence filled the air. And her boyfriend was nowhere to be found. _

"_Chris?" There was no response. What happened? Where was he? _

Lita popped up in her bed. She looked over to her alarm clock. It was 3:45 in the morning.

"God Lita. What's going on?"


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Chris groaned as he read the tiny note in his hand. _Oh great_, he thought to himself. The almighty Eric Bischoff wanted to meet with him. His boss had to be one of the most annoying people he had ever known. And he could only imagine why exactly Mr. Bischoff wanted to meet with him. He only knew that it was bound to be very interesting.

He opened the door to his boss's office without knocking. "So, what exac-" His words ceased as he gazed into the very familiar hazel eyes of his ex-girlfriend. She looked just as shocked to see him there.

"Ahhh…just the reaction I was hoping for."

The redhead immediately turned back to her boss. "Why are we meeting with _him_?"

"Well, Ms. Dumas, I will explain that to you very shortly. Please come in Chris and shut the door behind you."

Chris did as he was told, looking very skeptical. He walked further into the room, sitting in the chair about a foot away from Lita. He noticed the way she subtly shifted away from him, as though she couldn't get far enough away from him. She also kept her eyes in front of her. She refused to look at him. He laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation, before asking, "What is all of this about?".

"Something occurred in my ring a few weeks ago that was very interesting to me. Remember your title match against John Cena?"

Chris sighed, noticing the way his ex smiled mischievously. "Don't remind me."

"Well, it baffles me how the two of you went from being the fans' favorite, lovey-dovey couple to such bitter enemies. I know it's been over a year or something like that, but I'm sure the fans would be very interested to know what happened between the two of you. So, an amazing idea came to mind. I would like the two of you to come down to the ring later for a little talk. Something like Maury or Oprah or something." The short man sat back in his leather chair with a satisfied, smug smirk on his face.

"Eric, since when have you cared about what the fans would actually like to see?" Chris couldn't believe this man was going to try to exploit his relationship, or lack thereof, with Lita.

"Chris, I have always cared about what the fans want to see. It's all about ratings. I need to keep my viewers interested."

Chris leaned forward slightly, becoming a little agitated. "Well, _this_ is none of their business."

Eric shrugged innocently. "I think it kind of became everyone's business when it entered the ring."

"Oh come on. Since when has that mattered?"

"It's pointless to argue Chris. I expect to see you both in the ring later on. I don't think any of us want to see what the consequences would be for not showing up. See you in a little while."

Chris glared at his boss as he rose from his seat. He followed behind Lita, exiting the room.

He closed the door, once they were both outside. He stopped in his tracks as the redhead suddenly turned around, glaring at him. She seemed to be conflicted about whether to say something to him or not. After a few moments, she simply turned and walked away from him.

It was going to be another one of those nights.

* * *

Chris laughed as he walked up the steps and then onto the apron of the ring. Bischoff had had the ring set up just like a talk show. There were two armchairs opposite each other, each with a microphone in the seat. Bischoff's chair was set in between them, but not in the direct line of view. And the evil little man himself stood in front of his chair, grinning as he watched the blonde Canadian enter the ring.

Bischoff extended his hand as his guest approached him. Chris looked at the man's hand in disgust and then brought his gaze back to the face of his boss. Bischoff shrugged as he dropped his hand. Chris shook his head and walked over to the farther chair. He sat down, inhaling deeply as her music hit the arena.

She walked through the curtain with not a trace of a smile on her face. All of her usual energy was gone from her entrance. Her eyes were fixed on Chris. She never took her eyes off of him as she made her way to the ring and entered it. She stood by her chair for a few moments, staring at him. She then sent a dirty look in the direction of her boss and sat down. The moment she sat down, the stare-down recommenced.

"Well, well, well. It's a little tense in here, isn't it folks?" Bischoff laughed at his own statement. That man was so sickening sometimes. "Most of us are wondering what happened to the WWE's favorite couple. What caused the trouble in paradise?"

The two of them sat in silence. Chris leaned back in his armchair, still not breaking the stare between him and Lita.

"This is a time for the two of you to talk. So, I suggest you talk."

Lita lifted her microphone to her mouth. "I'll tell you why we broke up. Just look at what he did to me last year. It's as simple as that."

Chris smiled. He couldn't believe she was still playing this game. "Are you serious? Okay, Ms. Innocent."

"Why do you always call me that? It doesn't take an idiot to see that we broke up because of what you did. You're the one who left me. You're the reason why we're through."

"Oh, why don't you drop the clueless, innocent act? You are not Little Miss Perfect and you know that."

Her voice raised slightly. "I know I'm not perfect but I know that I wasn't the reason why we broke up."

Chris rolled his eyes, sinking even farther into his chair. Then that annoying voice pierced the air.

"Now, don't give up so easily. Lita, you claim that it's Chris's fault that you broke up. And we all know what he did to you last year. But Chris, you claim that Lita had a part in your breakup. What exactly did she do?"

Chris sighed and raised the microphone to his mouth, staring off in the ring. "I'm not going to discuss that here."

"Well Chris, how are we supposed to help the two of you resolve your problem if you don't share the details with us?"

"I didn't ask for your help, you nosy little bastard." Chris glared over at the dark-haired man. Bischoff's smirk grew. He was enjoying this in his sick, little way.

"Well, excuse me for trying to do a good deed and help the two of you out."

"Why don't you tell me what I did Chris? You claim that I'm the one to blame for you deciding to leave me. What did I supposedly do?" Lita leaned in, awaiting his response.

"If you want to play dumb, then play dumb. I said I didn't want to talk about that here. It's so funny how you never wanted to talk about this before. Where did this sudden interest come from?"

"Wait a minute. You two haven't talked about why you broke up for over a year." Eric piped in, receiving looks of disgust from the two other people in the ring.

Lita looked back to Chris. "That's because there's nothing to say. It was all made very clear by Chris's actions last year. And quite honestly I don't know how the cocky bastard and I were ever together."

"Yeah, well I don't know how I was ever with a-" Chris caught himself. She stared at him, shocked and confused. She had no idea what he was going to say.

"What was that Chris?" Eric tried to egg Chris on.

"You know what? I'm done. You can shove your fake ass little talk show up your ass Eric." Chris tossed his microphone on the ground and walked to the ropes. He was stopped once again by the sound of Eric Bischoff's voice.

"Whoa there Chris. It's clear to me that the two of you are far from working this out. Out of the kindness of my heart, I would like to help the two of you do that. Tonight the two of you will be teaming up for the first time in over a year and you will take on Edge and Victoria."

Chris didn't even bother to turn around. His hands balled up into fists. He left the ring without looking back. He was sure that Lita was having a fit. There was no way in hell this would work out when they couldn't even stand each other.


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Chris stood in the gorilla, waiting for the commercial break to end. Then his match with Lita would be up next. He wasn't sure how this was going to work out. There was no way they could stop arguing long enough to win this. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her approach.

"Ready partner?", he spat out sarcastically as he turned to face her. She stood with her hip stuck out, her arms crossed over her chest, and an expression on her face to match her body language.

"Listen, I really don't wanna be here right now. The last thing I wanted was to end up within fifteen feet of you tonight. But since that went out the window, I have one request for you. Don't even think about touching me tonight unless it's to make a tag. And after the match don't say a word to me. I don't ever want to speak to you again."

"Full of our self are we? Trust me, I'd prefer not to be talking to you right now. And what makes you think I even wanted to touch you?"

"After our last few encounters it became quite clear that you just can't keep your hands off of me." She smiled, enjoying his agitation.

"Oh really? If I recall correctly, you were the one saying, 'Oh Chris, don't stop. Please don't stop'." Chris imitated her pleading. Her smile quickly turned into a scowl. That got her blood boiling.

"I can't stand you. Just be glad I gave you that one night in the locker room. God knows you're not getting any elsewhere."

"From what I hear, neither are you." She scoffed, looking like she was ready to punch him in the face or knee him in the balls one more time. He turned away from her as he heard his music and made his way through the curtain. Edge and Victoria were already in the ring. They were so busy arguing, they didn't notice the two of them make their entrance.

Chris did his same old entrance, walking up to the ring. He wasn't going to enter the ring with his two opponents in there. If they were to decide to start double teaming him, who were to say whether Lita would help or not. She might sit back and enjoy every minute of it.

Chris kept his focus on the two in front of him as he heard Lita's music hit. It took a minute for her to get down to the ring. She stopped beside him long enough to send him a quick warning glare and then proceeded to the steps. They both entered the ring and all four competitors had a brief run-through of the rules with the referee. The women would be starting. Chris and Edge exited the ring, standing in their respective corners.

The bell rang and Victoria walked up to Lita, talking trash to her. She then shoved the redhead, sending her back a couple steps. Lita came back with a shove of her own, causing the brunette to fall back into her corner. Victoria looked up in shock. She hadn't expected that. She knew she had to take the redhead seriously now. As she stood, the redhead came running at her and she quickly dodged the woman, sending her crashing into the corner.

Victoria kicked her repeatedly in the stomach. She then choked the woman, causing the referee to come in and pull her away. While the referee's attentions were with Victoria, Edge choked the redhead in the corner. He released her as soon as the referee turned around. Lita slid down, trying to catch her breath. As soon as she was able to get some of her breath back, Victoria was lifting her up by her hair.

Chris watched on as Victoria had her way with Lita. He had the urge to start yelling for her, to try to encourage her, like old times. But everything was different now. _Whatever_, he thought to himself. She was a wrestler. She was used to this. She didn't need him to encourage her.

Victoria lifted the redhead off of the ground, talking more trash to her. She showboated to the boos of the crowd. She was definitely enjoying having her way with Lita. The crowd began chanting Lita's name. Victoria rolled her eyes and signaled for the crowd to kiss her ass as she clutched a huge chunk of the redhead's hair, holding her up. She placed her head between her side and arm, preparing to give her a DDT. She wasted a few more moments playing up to the crowd. Lita suddenly countered with a fisherman's suplex.

She tried to find the strength to make it over to Chris, knowing that Victoria would be tagging in Edge. Her body was so sore she could barely move. Her heart beat faster, the closer she got to the corner.

Chris looked across the ring. Victoria was inches away from tagging in Edge. Chris reached his hand out to Lita. "Come on.", he muttered to himself. Lita looked up him, seeming to hesitate. He knew what she was thinking. He shook his hand, trying to urge her on. She tagged his just as Edge entered the ring and rolled out of the way.

Chris went at it with Edge in the middle of the ring, hitting him until he fell to the ground. He wasn't sure where this anger was coming from. He wouldn't let up on Edge. It was like he wasn't in control of his emotions.

He had Edge in an empty corner. He punched Edge repeatedly, not letting him out of the corner. The referee came in to get Chris away from Edge, trying to avoid an event like the one that occurred earlier. Chris yelled at the referee to get out of the way. After a few moments, the referee finally backed off. The distraction, however, gave Edge enough time to recover and kick Chris in the stomach.

The momentum shifted to Edge. It was his turn to showboat. But that wouldn't last long.

Edge had Chris laid out on the ground. While Victoria conveniently had the referee distracted, he went to untie the turnbuckle. Unfortunately, Victoria couldn't keep the referee distracted long enough and the short man caught onto what Edge was doing. He came over to Edge and argued with him. Edge tried to pretend that he was fixing the untied turnbuckle.

Chris took advantage of this moment, getting to his feet. He turned Edge around, hitting him in the face, Edge came back with a few hits of his own . Edge tried to hit Chris in the face one more time, but Chris ducked and shoved him backwards. Edge went flying into the referee, crushing him in the corner. Chris hadn't realized the referee was behind him trying to retie the turnbuckle. The referee fell to the ground.

Victoria took this opportunity to come into the ring and jump on Chris's back. She flailed around, trying to choke him. Chris wasn't phased by her tactics. He ran backwards crushing her between the other turnbuckle and his back. She fell off of his back, cringing in pain. Edge came immediately, trying to catch Chris off guard.

While those three were in the corner, Lita entered the ring and went over to the referee. She shook him, trying to revive him. As he began to stir, she went over to the turnbuckle trying to tie it back on, so that Edge and Victoria couldn't pull anything.

Chris groaned as Edge kicked him again. He felt Edge grab his arm and suddenly he was being whipped across the ring, towards the other turnbuckle. He looked up immediately seeing Lita. If he didn't slow down, he was going to crush her in the corner. He fought to slow down and as soon as he was within mere inches of Lita, he grabbed the ropes to stop himself. Lita turned around with a look of shock and confusion. She instinctively shoved him backwards.

Chris stumbled backwards and found himself suddenly being rolled up by Edge for the pin.

Lita tried to run to break up the pin but could not move. Victoria had made her way around the ring and was holding onto the woman's legs. Lita watched on as the referee, who had miraculously recovered, counted the one-two-three. Lita gaped in awe, wondering what she had done. Chris slammed his hand on the mat as Edge ran out of the ring to be greeted by a beaming Victoria. They had gotten one over on Chris and Lita.

Chris stood, watching their two retreating opponents in anger. He turned to face a still-gaping Lita. She brought her eyes to him and swallowed hard.

"What the hell was that?!", he shouted angrily.

"I thought you were…I wasn't trying to make us lose the match!", she shouted back, wiping at the loose strands of hair that had fallen into her face.

"Come on lovebirds. You can't tell me that's the best you two can do."

They both looked toward the stage, seeing their boss.

"You know what? I think I should give the two of you another chance. I know that you two can actually work well together. Let's say next week, we have a rematch. Chris Jericho and Lita versus Edge and Victoria, Part Two."

"Oh great.", Chris muttered, looking at Lita. She sighed.


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"I hate Eric Bischoff!" Lita threw her gym bag on the floor as she entered her hotel room.

"Understandable." Her roommate was sitting on the couch watching television. She looked at her best friend as she proceeded into the bedroom. The redhead reemerged a couple minutes later, t-shirt and shorts in hand.

"I swear, it's like he lives to make other people miserable. He knows I can't stand being around Chris. So all of a sudden it's a marvelous idea to have us teaming up again."

Trish shrugged from her spot on the couch. "You know he has nothing better to do with his life."

"Tell me about it." Lita groaned as she went into the bathroom to change her clothes.

Trish bit down on her bottom lip, wondering if she should ask Lita what she was thinking. She didn't want to upset her best friend, but she was curious. "Ummm…Lita, I was wondering. What _was_ that whole thing about anyways? Where you shoved Chris and all?"

There was a heavy silence for a few moments. Trish wasn't sure if Lita hadn't heard or if she was choosing to ignore the question. The door to the bathroom suddenly opened.

"Do you think I was trying to make us lose the match?"

Trish shrugged.

"I wasn't.", Lita retorted disbelievingly. "I honestly thought Chris was trying to…well I don't know what exactly. I just didn't like the fact that he was so close to me. I didn't for one second think that Edge was waiting there to pin him."

"Okay. You know he was just trying not to crush you. Edge whipped him into the corner. He stopped himself just in time to keep from hurting you." Was she defending Chris Jericho? Wow, she had really been spending too much time with Christian. It was like she was actually starting to believe that Jericho had a heart and actually cared about someone besides himself.

Lita stared at her best friend, taking in what she had just heard. "Well, whatever he was doing, I didn't mean to make us lose the match."

"Well, it doesn't look like this is your last match together. I guess the two of you are gonna have to start getting chummy-chummy again."

"Whatever." Lita went back into the bedroom. "How was your night in Stacy's room by the way?", she shouted from the other room.

Trish thought back to the previous night. That had to have been the most amazing night of her life. Her first time with Christian. She never would have imagined it being as good as it actually was. And he was much more of a romantic than she would have thought. She remembered how surprised she was to walk into the candlelit room with rose petals scattered all around.

She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "Uh, it was fun."

"Cool." Lita shouted from the room.

Trish fought the urge to just shout out the truth to her best friend. Lita was the one person she ever trusted with information like this. The one person who she liked sharing her personal life with. Lita was so much fun to talk to about things like this. She wanted to tell her so badly.

"Trish, ya gotta tell me. How's your love life been lately? I haven't heard a single word about it. Is it really non-existent? God knows it can't suck as much as mine."

Trish laughed nervously. That's what she gets for even thinking about telling Lita. "Uh…it's…it's interesting."

"Yeah? How so?"

"There's, umm, this guy that I'm interested in."

"Really? How come I haven't heard anything about him? Do I know him?"

"You'll meet him."

"When?"

"In time. In time." Trish looked around nervously.

"I was just wondering because usually you tell me about this stuff and I just hadn't heard anything recently. Are the two of you serious?"

"Well, this thing just started recently, so we'll see how it goes. How was your night?", Trish asked, desperate to change the topic.

Lita reappeared in the doorway. "I didn't tell you. But I've started having these dreams."

"What about?"

"About me and Chris. Right before we broke up."

"Oh." Trish looked off, taking in what she just heard.

"Yeah. Funny huh? It's so weird though. I never had dreams about that stuff before. Why now?"

Trish knew she probably shouldn't say what she was thinking but she couldn't help it. "I'm really starting to think that you still have feelings for Chris."

"Yeah. Feelings of loathing and disgust."

"Well, I don't know." Trish turned around on the couch, facing Lita. "Now don't get seriously offended here. I just think that your feelings for Chris were always there. You started to get over it, like be able to move on, but then you had that encounter with Chris. And now they're coming back to the surface."

Lita stared at Trish in disbelief, not liking what she was hearing. "Yeah, part of me will always love Chris. But I will never want to be with him again."

"I'm just saying that I think that's what the dreams are about. And never say never."

Lita laughed off her friend's suggestion. "Okay Trish. Goodnight." She went back into the bedroom and shut the door.

Trish shook her head as she turned back to the television. "Maybe you're right Christian. Maybe they do belong together." Trish heard the click of the lights turning off in the bedroom. She waited a few more minutes and cut off the television. She put her feet back in her shoes and tiptoed over to the door. She needed to see Christian.

Christian rubbed at his eyes as he opened his door. A smile spread across his face at the sight of his unexpected visitor.

"Hiya stranger."

Christian pulled her into his room, shutting the door behind him. "Hiya to you too. To what do I owe this pleasure?" He took in the sight of her. She had on a white t-shirt with the collar cut out, which was too big for her. It hung off of one of her shoulders and covered her short shorts.

"I just needed to see you. It's been a whole 24 hours. Were you asleep already?"

He walked up to her and caressed her shoulders in his hands. "No, I had laid down. I figured I might as well try to go to sleep since I had nothing better to do."

"Now you have me."

"I like that."

He kissed her softly. Her lips were soft, one of his favorite features on her. She stepped back from him and went over to his bed. She kicked off her shoes and slid under the covers. She patted the spot next to her.

Christian smirked and gladly joined her under the covers. He laid on top of her and continued kissing her.

They were disturbed by a knock at the door.

"Oh my God. Who is that?"

"I don't know. I wasn't expecting anyone. Hurry go in the bathroom." The knocking persisted as Trish ran for the bathroom, quietly shutting the door behind her.

Christian went to the door and opened it. "Oh…hey."

"Hey. Did I wake you up?"

"No." There were a few moments of silence. "Uh, come in."

Chris walked into the room, his hands shoved in his pockets. "Sorry to stop by at this time. I just got back from the arena and I figured you'd be up."

"No, it's fine. Interesting match by the way."

"Yeah…let's not go there." Christian walked past Chris and sat on the bed.

"So what brings you by?"

"Well, I know I was kind of a jerk before. I _was_ a jerk before. I just wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have yelled at you that way when you were just trying to help me out."

"It's cool. I figured you just needed time to figure out that you need me to be your brain."

Chris laughed. "So am I forgiven?"

"Yeah. I guess so."

"Cool."

There was a thud in the bathroom. "Shit.", Christian mumbled to himself.

"What was that? Jay, I think someone's in your bathroom." Chris went to the bathroom door, preparing to defend himself against whoever was in the bathroom when he opened the door.

Christian shot up from his spot on the bed. "No, Chris don't!"

"What? Didn't you hear that? Someone's in here." Chris whispered.

Christian tried to think of something to keep Chris from opening the door, but it was too late. He watched, speechless, as Chris stared in the bathroom.

"Chris…"

"Jay, it was just your toothbrush and toothpaste. They fell off the edge of the sink."

"It was?"

Chris reemerged from the bathroom, holding the objects in his hand. "Yeah." Chris laughed at himself. "I thought someone was hiding out in your bathroom. But interesting that they just fell out of nowhere."

"Go figure." Christian tried to look behind his friend to see what had happened to Trish. "Look Chris, I'm gonna head to bed. We can hang out tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure." Chris handed the items over to Christian as he passed him on the way to the door. "Goodnight. See ya tomorrow."

Christian waved bye to his friend and waited for the door to close. He then ran into the bathroom. "Trish?"

"In here."

He pulled back he shower curtain as she sat up in the bathtub.

"That was close."

"Tell me about it. I accidentally knocked over your stuff. Why would you put them right on the edge of the sink like that?"

"My bad." He reached his hand out to her, helping her out of the tub. He grinned as she stood in front of him.

"What's so funny?"

"You are. You looked so frightened hiding in that tub."

"Well, I couldn't let him find me in there. Remember no one is supposed to know about us? Speaking of that, when are we going to tell people?"

"Trish, with all of this Lita and Chris drama, we can't come out being all happy about our relationship when they're as miserable as ever. Plus we'll never actually get to be completely together like we want to be. We'll always have our best friends coming to us and whining because they're miserable."

"First of all, those two will probably always be at each others' throats. Second of all, Lita is not miserable. Except for today and that's Bischoff's fault. And third, I think they would let us have our privacy if they knew we were together."

Christian sighed, walking away from her. He went into his bedroom and sat down on his bed. Trish watched in confusion. What was up with him? She sauntered over to the bed.

"What now Christian? What's wrong?"

"You may not think so, but I still think they belong together. I know how he feels about her and I believe she still loves him too. And when I picture the day that we tell them, I see them being happy together and us being happy together. It's just perfect. Everything's perfect and we're all happy."

Trish smiled and plopped down on the bed next to him. She nudged him with her shoulder. "Who would of thought my boyfriend was such a big softy?" They both laughed.

"Softy or not. I just think that's the way things should be."

Silence filled the hotel room. Trish looked around the room. She finally sighed and stated, "Okay. I'll admit. I do think Lita still loves him. And I kind of am starting to believe that maybe they do belong together."

Christian perked up. "So, does this mean you'll help me get those two back together?"

She put her hands up trying to calm him down. "I'll subtly encourage Lita to think about how she really feels about Chris. But I won't force anything."

Christian hugged his girlfriend with elation. "Okay good. That's all I ask for."

She ran her hands up and down his back. "Now what about what I actually came here for?"

Christian pushed her back, his hands still on her shoulders. "Oh yes. We can't forget about that now, can we?" He leaned in and kissed her as she giggled.


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

_He downed another shot of alcohol. That had to be number six or maybe seven. He needed to find Christian and ask if he could stay his room tonight. There was no way he could go back to his own hotel room. Not after what he'd just found out. _

_He poured the remainder of his alcohol into the tiny shot glass and let his head fall back as he downed that one as well._

_How could she do this to him? He thought he could trust her. She had sworn that she loved him and he was the only one for her. She told him that she wanted to get married and have lots of kids. Were those all lies?_

_Must have been. Otherwise, she wouldn't have done what she did._

_She was probably going crazy, wondering where he'd gone. Oh well, she deserved that. He'd just walked out on her as she was in the bathroom. Whatever. This didn't even compare to what she'd done._

_He wished this had never happened. But it was too late for all of that. What was done was done. And he could never forgive her. Not now, not ever._

* * *

Chris ground his teeth as he recalled the memory. The memory of the worst day of his life. He remembered every word of the phone call he'd received that day. And he'd never forget the piece of information the person on the other end had to share.

"Stop daydreaming Chris. You have a match to get ready for." He shook it off and continued to tie the laces on his wrestling boots.

Christian always asked him what kept him from telling Lita how he really felt about her. Well, that was it. Although he loved her with all of his heart, yearned for her, ached for her, he could never forget that day. He could never get over what she'd done. And that was going to keep them apart forever.

He stood and left his locker room.

* * *

Christian walked over to his locker room door, barely able to take his eyes off of the television screen. He pulled open and a huge smile spread across his face.

"Hey gorgeous." Trish walked past him and sat down on his couch, patting the seat next to her. He watched her silently and suspiciously. After a few moments, he finally broke his silence.

"Hello to you too. Please tell me you're not ready for more of what we did last night already. Because after last night, I think need some extra time to recuperate."

She smiled. "No silly. Just here to talk."

"Oh good." He went and joined her on the couch. "You know that wasn't to say that I don't like doing what we did last night…"

She pressed a finger to his lips. "Shhhh baby. Just be quiet." Christian nodded obediently. She removed her finger from his lips. "I thought of something that might help our little mission."

"And what's that?"

"Well, Chris and Lita have never actually talked, well…had a civilized conversation, since what happened between them last year. If we could just get them to kinda talk like Bischoff did for whatever reasons, maybe some of the tension will clear up."

"I see what you're saying. It's just that it never seems to work. The minute those two get together the fur starts flying."

"I know. But there's clearly some confusion somewhere in all of this. Last week when Bischoff asked Chris what Lita did wrong, he wouldn't say. Has he ever actually talked to Lita about that?"

Christian's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to recall his many conversations with Chris about Lita. "Not that I can think of. He doesn't like to talk about it."

"Well maybe if we actually get him to talk to Lita about all of that, then it will clear up a lot of things. If what he claims she did is what you tell me, then she'll explain to him that she didn't and they can work through the other stuff."

Christian stared at her in disbelief. "What makes you so sure that she didn't do it?"

"Lita tells me everything. And she has never mentioned anything about that."

"Well, maybe she's too ashamed to admit the truth. That she was wrong."

Trish shook her head furiously. "No. Lita's not a liar. And she also owns up to everything she does wrong. No, that's not possible."

"Okay…" Christian looked at the television screen as he heard Chris's music. "Here we go with Round Two of Chris and Lita versus Edge and Victoria. Let's see how this match goes."

Trish cringed. "Hopefully nothing like last week."

* * *

Chris watched as Lita approached him in the ring. He waited until she was within a foot of him to speak. "Look, we can't have anything like last week. Let's put our problems aside and be a team tonight. Then maybe Bischoff will leave us alone if we win and we can go our separate ways."

She watched him as he spoke with a nonchalant, fixed expression on her face. When he was done, she simply nodded and replied, "Alright." She exited the ring as the bell signaled the beginning of the match.

* * *

"I wonder what he said to her."

"Who knows. It couldn't have been something too horrible. She doesn't look any more disgusted than she usually does."

"Yeah. Do you want something to drink?", Christian asked as he stood from the couch, preparing to go outside to the juice machine.

"No, I'm fine." Trish focused intently on the match as Christian exited the room. Edge and Victoria were already up to their cheating ways. They had Chris isolated in their corner and they never wasted an opportunity to distract the referee and cheat. The camera focused in on Lita as their two opponents choked Chris in the corner. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she was frowning. She was concerned. God, Christian was so right.

The door to the locker room reopened and Christian entered with a bottle of cherry flavored Gatorade in hand. He sat back down on the couch. "Did I miss anything?"

"Just a lot of Edge and Victoria cheating. And you were so right Christian. She really does care about him. The way she looks anytime they hit Chris….she does love him."

"I told you."

The match continued with Edge and Victoria not allowing Chris out of their corner and taking every opportunity to double team him. He could barely move.

"Those two are disgusting. Why can't they just fight fair and square? Oh no…" Trish stopped speaking as Chris got knocked to the outside. With action outside of the ring, things could only get worse.

* * *

Lita watched as Edge stomped on Chris outside of the ring right beside her. She wanted to do something. She looked back in the ring, seeing the referee trying to hold Victoria back from leaving the ring. Damn, this was another tactic to distract the referee, which meant…

Lita looked back to Edge and Chris. Edge had pulled a chair from under the ring and placed it on Chris's head. Oh no…

_Think, Lita, think_. She climbed to the top rope. "Hey Edge!"

He turned to face her and before he could think to do anything else, she leapt off of the top rope and hit him with a hurracanrana. She sat up on her knees and watched Edge writhe in pain. Chris had begun to stir. He moved the chair off of his head and got to his feet.

Lita slid back into the ring as Victoria was freaking out about what had just occurred outside of the ring. Neither of them had legally tagged in, but the referee didn't seem to notice with all of the movement. She kicked the brunette in the stomach, causing her to bend over in pain. Lita grabbed her head and planted her with a vicious DDT.

She then looked to the turnbuckle. Victoria had flipped over. She went to the top rope and sent up a silent prayer, as always, as she back-flipped off the turnbuckle and hit Victoria with a devastating moonsault. She clutched her stomach in pain before she remembered to cover Victoria. She pinned Victoria, grabbing her leg to make sure she didn't kick out. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chris throw Edge into the ring post to keep him from breaking up the pin. The referee got down and counted one, two, three.

Lita stood up, grinning. Chris had slid into the ring. He hobbled over to Lita and the referee, with his arm wrapped around his waist. The referee raised their hands to let the crowd know that they were the winners. He then left the ring. Lita turned to face Chris.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye and good riddance." Lita smirked.

"Congratulations to you too. Would it really kill you to say something nice? Especially when this is hopefully the last time we get the pleasure of being in each others' presence."

"Here's something nice. I want you to kiss….my ass."

"You know what, you are such a…"

Lita stepped up to him, daring him. "Go ahead. Say it."

Lita gasped as he suddenly shoved her to the ground. That son-of-a…

She looked up, ready to tell him off. "Oh my God." She was shocked to see Edge standing there with a steel chair in hand and Chris laid out on the mat. And from where Edge was standing…he had been aiming to hit her.

Edge quickly darted out of the ring, retreating to the back with Victoria. Lita crawled over to Chris. Little trickles of red blood slid down the side of his face from his forehead. He was unconscious, not moving at all. Edge had gotten him good. God, she could only imagine if he had actually hit her with that force.

She flipped her red hair out of the way so that she could clearly see him and communicate with him. She placed her hand on his face, shaking him gently. "Come on Chris. Wake up."

She swallowed the huge lump in her throat. She looked to the ramp, seeing all of the medics running down with the stretcher. They knew, just like she knew, that something was really wrong. She looked back to Chris. She ran a hand through his hair, not caring that some of his blood was getting on her hand.

"Look, you're gonna be okay."

"Okay ma'am. We're gonna put him on the stretcher and take him to the hospital."

Lita nodded and reluctantly stood, moving out of the way so that the medics could put him on the stretcher. She watched them lift him onto the orange board and slide him out of the ring to place him on the stretcher. Her hand shakily ran through her long red hair as she exited the ring right behind them and followed them up the ramp. Chris should have started waking up by now. They met Christian and Trish outside at the ambulance.

"Oh God, he hasn't woken up by now?" Christian went to his best friend's side.

"We're thinking it might be a concussion.", one of the medics responded. Christian nodded, letting them wheel Chris up to the ambulance.

One of the medics turned to Lita and asked, "Ma'am are you coming with him?"

Lita didn't know how to respond. She opened her mouth but no words came out. Luckily, she was saved by the groaning from the man on the stretcher.

"Lita…"

She went to his side immediately. She half-smiled, glad to see him awake but still worried. "Yeah?"

He cringed, not opening his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Okay."

The paramedics lifted him up into the ambulance. Lita took a few steps away from the ambulance. She sensed her best friend come up behind her.

"I haven't seen you show that much concern for him in who knows how long.", the little blonde whispered over her friend's shoulder.

"Well, he sacrificed himself for me. I at least owe him that, right?"

"No, that wasn't 'Thank you, I owe you for that' concern. That was 'Oh my God, I love you, please be okay' concern."

Lita turned around and looked at her best friend, biting nervously on one of her nails. Her eyes then shot to the ambulance as it took off.

"Girls, I'm gonna head to the hospital. Do you wanna come along?" Christian's question was directed at Lita. He looked at the redhead, hoping for a 'yes'.

Lita shook her head. "I don't think it would be appropriate for me to go. I think I'm just gonna head to the hotel. Let me know if he's okay."

Christian nodded disappointedly.

"Christian, I'm gonna come with you. I'll be right there." He nodded and went to his car.

"I know what you're thinking Lita. You can't believe he saved you from that chair shot. If he was such a bastard, why would he do that? And now you're confused about how you feel. Am I right?"

The redhead seemed to be in a state of shock. She just stared at her best friend, running a hand through her hair and nervously biting on her nail. Trish hated to leave her best friend like this, but she needed to catch up to Christian. Trish ran after Christian, knowing that he would be in a hurry to get to the hospital. Lita turned and began her walk back into the arena.

"Lita, congratulations on your victory tonight. I didn't think this would be the way the two of you would be celebrating your win though." Eric Bischoff stood in front of her with a sickening smirk on his face. She wouldn't be surprised if he had set up that entire catastrophe himself.

"What do you want from us Bischoff?"

"Oh trust me darling. You've given me the amusement that I wanted." He laughed in his own disgusting way.

"You're a sick, sad man."

He laughed again and walked away from her.


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"Jay, you know what? I'm sick of being on bed rest."

"The doctors wanted you to take it easy before you started wrestling again. And that's what you're gonna do, whether you like it or not."

Chris laid back down in his bed. He hated being sidelined. It made him feel so helpless. It'd been five days since Edge had laid him out with that chair. And he felt as though he were becoming more and more useless each day.

"It's times like this that make me miss Lita."

Christian looked to his best friend. He understood why he felt that way.

"She was always right there with me when I was hurt. And she took good care of me. I miss those times."

"You could have those times again if you would just talk to her about how you feel."

Chris shook his head. "We can never go back to times like that. Things have changed. A lot. It's over. It doesn't matter how much I love her."

"Why don't you just talk to her about everything? About what she did?", Christian urged his friend.

"No. It's too late. What's done is done. I don't even wanna talk about it."

"I know it hurts, but-"

The knocking at the door interrupted their conversation. Christian got up from the armchair and exited the room to answer the door.

"Wow. Hey Lita."

"Hi."

Christian couldn't move or speak at all. He couldn't believe she was there. He finally snapped out of his little trance and let her into the hotel room. She took a few slow steps inside, clearly very nervous.

"How's Chris? Is he alright?"

"Why don't you go find out?" He pointed in the direction of the bedroom.

"No. I shouldn't have come." She tried to walk past Christian and get out of that hotel room. Her efforts were blocked as the man stepped in her way and held her back.

"You can do this. I'm sure he would really appreciate you coming by to check on him."

She nodded and turned around. She took a deep breath for confidence. She knocked on the bedroom door and waited for his call to enter the room.

"Hi."

His eyes darted to her from the window which he had been staring out of. "Hi.", he said, full of surprise as he sat up in the bed.

Lita cleared her throat and moved closer to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Besides the periodical headaches, pretty good. I have a concussion, but that was expected."

She nodded, looking away from him. After a few seconds, she sighed and looked at him again. "I just wanted to thank you for what you did. I really appreciated it."

Chris nodded. Lita turned to leave. She was about to take a step, but suddenly turned around. "Chris, why did you take that hit for me?" She breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she finally got that off of her chest. Deep down, she was sure she already knew the answer. She just wanted to hear him say it.

"Lita, you may hate me, but I don't hate you. I couldn't let him hurt you."

Lita recalled the time when she had told him she hated him. "Chris, I don't hate you."

He smiled, looking down in his lap. "That's nice to know."

"Get better." Lita turned away from him, walking to the door.

"Lita."

The redhead spun around, anticipating what he was going to say.

Chris let out a breath he was holding in. "Thank you for coming to see me."

She smiled, half disappointed. "No problem." She left him there in the room. A few minutes later Christian reentered the room.

"I almost told her that I loved her."

"Why didn't you?"

"I just couldn't. There'd be no point."

Christian shook his head. "I don't even know what to say anymore.", he stated hopelessly as he left the room.

* * *

Eric Bischoff smirked as he saw the tall redhead leave Chris Jericho and Christian's room. So, those two were getting close again. And he had something to do with that. But he would fix that right away.

* * *

"Hey. How was your visit?"

Lita jumped, shocked by the sound of Trish's voice.

"You were deep in thought huh?"

"Trish, not now." Lita crossed the room, plopping down in the armchair. She massaged her temples as she let her head fall back against the back of the chair.

Trish placed her hands on her hip as she watched her friend in bewilderment. "If not now, then when Lita?"

Lita looked up at her friend and then groaned, shutting her eyes tightly.

"You walk around pretending that you could care less for Chris. And whenever you see him, you immediately snap at him. But after your last two matches with him, it became very clear to me, and pretty much the whole damn world, that that was all an act!" Trish paused to take a deep breath to calm herself down. She had been gesturing wildly with her hands. She didn't know when she'd become so frustrated with how her friend was acting. "Why won't you just face the truth? You are still in love with Chris. Say it Lita. Say it-"

"Okay! Okay! I'm still in love with him, okay!" Lita shot up from her chair and began to pace the room. "I'm completely and totally…helplessly in love with him! And I wanna be with him…", she stopped pacing the room. "No matter what happened in the past, I still can't get him out of my mind. I need him."

Trish smiled in relief. "And you've just been pretending that everything's okay. So, what's stopping you? Why won't you tell him that you love him?"

Lita shook her head. "I…"

Trish walked up to her friend and put her hands on her shoulders, trying to command her full attention. "Go tell him. I think you don't have to worry about what his response will be after everything that happened on Monday. You two can talk and move on from whatever happened in the past. I just know that you would truly be happy if you were with Chris again."

Trish swallowed hard, hoping that she and Christian were right about Chris and Lita belonging together. Hopefully, once they worked things out, things would go back to the way they were in the past. And as a plus, she and Christian would finally be able to come out with their our relationship.

Lita sighed. "Okay…" She began to look more resolute and determined. "I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna tell him." She half-ran from her friend to the door. She gasped, placing her hand over her heart when she opened the door. One of the maids was standing there with her hand poised to knock on the door.

"Sorry ma'am. A gentleman ask me to bring this to your room."

The redhead looked down at the video cassette in the short woman's hand. She took the tape and examined it, looking for some kind of writing or something. "Do you know what his name was?"

"No. He just asked me to bring this to you immediately."

"Okay. Thank you." Lita closed the door behind her and proceeded back into the room, not taking her eyes off of the tape.

"What's that?"

"I have no clue. But we're about to find out." Lita went to the television and squatted down, popping the video cassette into the VCR and pressing play. She then sat down on the couch directly behind her, quickly joined by her best friend.

Lita's heart clenched as the video brought back memories she never wanted to relive.

_

* * *

_

_Fine, she would give him time to get his thoughts together or whatever it was he needed to do. They had a match to concentrate on. _

_His music began to play in the arena and she followed him out as usual. Except he didn't do his normal entrance this time. Instead of posing, he continued to walk to the ring. Something was definitely up. She followed him to the ring, a frown on her face._

_He wouldn't even acknowledge her presence. She wanted to say something to him, but she had no idea what to say. She just shook it off and waited for their opponents to come to the ring._

_Edge and Victoria smugly made their way to the ring. There was definitely no love lost between the two couples. They had never gotten along much. Edge and Victoria couldn't stand the popularity the other couple had. And they couldn't stand how Edge and Victoria cheated consistently. _

_She and Victoria were going to begin the match. She watched her boyfriend get out of the ring, hoping that he would glance at least for a second in her direction. He, however, did not. She sighed and prepared herself to face Victoria as the bell ring. She could just take her frustrations out on the bitchy, psychotic brunette._

_She took the brunette down with a tackle, not giving her any time to come up with some sort of scheme. Her anger flowed into the slaps that she delivered to Victoria. The referee had to pull her off of Victoria. She immediately went after Victoria again, kicking her in the gut. She grabbed her head and suplexed her. She got to her feet before the other woman and waited for her to rise. _

_As Victoria got to her feet, she jumped on her back and put her in a sleeper-hold. Victoria waved her arms around frantically, trying to get out of the hold. She tightened her grip on the woman's head and squeezed her legs around her waist so that she wouldn't fall off._

_Victoria stumbled backwards a few steps, about to succumb to the hold. Suddenly, she felt hands on her hair. She loosened her grip on Victoria, screaming in pain. Edge had gotten a hold of her. He yanked on her hair, causing her to fall on her back on the ground._

_The momentum shifted. Victoria took advantage of the opportunity, picking her opponent up by her head. She clutched a bunch of hair in each hand and whipped the woman around by her hair. She fell to the ground in pain, and clutched at her stomach. Victoria placed a foot on the woman's back and grabbed her hair once again, pulling her head back. She cried out as her back was stretched in the wrong direction. _

_Victoria pulled her up from the ground and locked onto her head, preparing to suplex her, just what had been done to her earlier. She countered it however and shoved the brunette back from her. Victoria ran at her to try to clothesline her, but she ducked. The brunette continued running into the ropes and when she came back, she attempted another clothesline, but both women had had the same idea and were knocked out._

_She rolled over on her stomach and struggled to catch her breath. She heard Victoria crawling to her corner to tag in Edge. She knew she needed to make the tag to her boyfriend. There was no way she could handle Edge. She drug herself closer to her own corner. She grabbed her aching head as she reached her hand out to her partner, rising to her feet. It took her a few moments to realize that he wasn't tagging in. She opened her eyes and looked at him, questioning him with her eyes. _

_She would never forget the look of anger and hurt in his eyes as he stared at her hand and finally looked at her for the first time in what seemed like forever. He shook his head and proceeded to walk down the steps. _

"_Chris! What are you doing?! Chris!" She called after him in vain as he walked up the ramp, leaving her there in the ring. She moved to the center of the ring, placing her hands on the ropes, trying to get him to hear her. She dropped her hands from the rope hopelessly. He wouldn't even turn around. Her heart swelled as she watched him leave her, leave their relationship, and all of their hopes and dreams. _

_Remembering where she was, she turned around. The last thing she saw was Edge run at her and take her down with a spear. Everything went black._

* * *

Lita bit down on her lip, as stinging, hot tears built up in her eyes. The video suddenly went off and blue filled the television screen.

"Lita…", Trish tried to console her friend, but had no idea what to say.

The redhead pushed loose strands of hair behind her ear before standing up and storming into the bedroom.

"Lita!" Trish's call was only answered with a slam of the door. "Damnit."


	12. Chapter 12

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"We have problems."

"Here, come in. Chris is asleep."

Trish paced the room, pulling her hand through her golden blonde hair.

"What's the matter? What happened?" He stood in front of her and she turned around.

"Lita was on the way over here to finally admit to Chris that she was still in love with him."

Christian's eyes lit up. "What happened? Where is she?"

"Locked up in the bedroom, probably crying her eyes out. Some asshole sent this." She held up the video tape.

"What's on that?"

"A nice little reminder of how Chris left her to get speared by Edge."

Christian took the tape from her hand. He walked around her. "No. Who sent this?"

"We don't know. The maid brought it. So, it's clear that someone's trying to keep them apart."

Christian shook his head and turned around. "We have to find out who it is. We were so close to getting those two to work things out. They can't mess it up now."

Trish diverted her eyes to the ground, shuffling her foot. "Maybe this is a sign. Maybe they aren't meant to be together after all."

Christian stared at her incredulously. "We know they're meant to be together."

"I don't know. Maybe they're not. It's been over a year and Lita is still not over what happened."

He took a step closer to her. "That's because it hurts. They love each other so much, that the things they did to each other still hurt."

Trish shrugged. "Maybe, it hurts too much for them to be together."

Christian frowned. "Why are you saying this? You said before that you thought that they still loved each other. You said you would help me get them back together. Why is it different now?"

Trish glared at her boyfriend. "Sometimes I think you care more about their relationship than ours.", her voice was a harsh whisper.

Christian was utterly confused by that remark. His eyebrows furrowed deeply. "Come again."

"You heard me. You put more effort into getting Lita and Chris back together than us. It's like they are your main concern and I'm not."

"That's not true at all. You're the one that's important to me. I just care about my friends and their happiness. I want them to be happy like us."

"But that doesn't mean that we have to come second!", her voice remained quiet, in order to not wake up Chris, but the power in her words resonated throughout the room. "Why can't we tell them about us? That has nothing to do with their relationship."

"I want them to be completely happy for us when we tell them. Plus, I don't want them to look at our relationship and be hurt because they don't have that for themselves."

She rolled her eyes. "Same story. They don't have a relationship by choice. It's not our job to make them happy. I'm tired of hiding this. Are you ashamed of us or something?"

"No!"

"Then let's tell them."

He shook his head, gaping at her. "No."

"Fine! It's clear what's more important to you. How about I make it easier for you and not force you to be in this relationship, so you can go be in theirs?" She stormed out of the hotel room, leaving Christian standing there completely baffled.

"Who was that?"

Christian looked up, shocked to see Chris in the bedroom doorway, with sleep still in his face. "My ex-girlfriend apparently."

Chris stared at his best friend in confusion but too tired to try to comprehend. He laughed it off. "Okay…"

Christian tried to shake off his argument with Trish. "Uh, why are you out of bed?"

"Come on. I have been in that bed for way too long. I'm perfectly fine. I'm not gonna pass out or anything. I just wanted to get something to drink." Chris walked over to the mini refrigerator. Christian plopped down on the couch.

"Get me a beer while you're over there."

Chris walked back over to the couch with a bottle of water in one hand and a can of beer in the other. He observed his clearly morose friend. "Are you okay?" Christian looked up at him as he tossed the beer to him.

Christian caught the can and sighed while opening it. "Sure, why wouldn't I be?" He threw his head back as he took a few swallows of beer.

Chris sat down next to him and smiled. "Well, the way you're chugging that beer says a lot. Plus, you didn't argue with me about me not being in bed. Something's definitely wrong."

"No, I'm alright." Christian slouched down in the couch. "Hey, back when you and Lita were together, you had fights right?"

Chris laughed at the random question. "Of course."

"Fights about what."

"Any random stuff. Some where bigger than others."

Christian nodded, turning the beer can in his hand. "Did you ever have fights that you almost broke up over?"

Chris looked at his best friend who had his sight focused on the can of beer. "Well, there was this one about her looks. It was when we first got together and it was really silly. We didn't really fight over silly stuff like that later on. But she had started feeling really self-conscious and I was pretty oblivious. She asked me if I thought she was pretty and I told her yeah. Then she asked me if I would break up with her if I felt she wasn't pretty anymore. I told her that she would never be ugly, so we wouldn't have to worry about it. Then she started asking me more questions about whether I was with her just because she looked good. And I was trying to talk my way out of it, but it just kept getting worse. Complete miscommunication."

"Miscommunication?" Christian repeated, thinking of his own argument with Trish.

"Yeah. She stormed out on me, saying that she didn't want to be with a shallow guy who only wanted her for her looks. She came back a few hours later though. She explained everything to me and we both apologized. That was a pretty good night too because there was a lot of make-up sex." Chris laughed, thinking back to that night.

Christian smiled at Chris's unintended words of encouragement. "Cool."

"So, what did you ask that for? Is there something I don't know?"

"No, I just always wondered. You two just seemed so happy all the time."

Chris lifted his eyebrows, saying that he'd thought so too. Christian stood from the couch. "I have to go find someone. Thanks for the talk." He hurried out of the room.

Chris stared at the door as it swung shut. Suddenly he remembered what Christian had said to him as he came out of the bedroom. "Oh my God. I would have never guessed. The question is, who is she?"

Christian found himself in the lobby of the hotel, breathless. Where the hell was she? He'd gone to her room, some of the other divas' rooms, the parking lot, the gym and he couldn't find her anywhere.

By luck, he happened to look out of the corner of his eye through the clear doors to the pool and he saw a blonde woman sitting alone on the edge of the pool. He crossed the lobby and opened the door to the heated pool room.

Trish sat on the edge of the pool with her jeans rolled up, kicking her legs in the warm water.

"Hey pretty lady."

The blonde sighed. "Leave me alone Christian."

"Okay I will. After you hear me out." He took a couple of cautious steps toward her after taking off his shoes. "I wasn't exactly sure what had happened after you walked out on me. But the message I got was that you think I don't care about you as much as I care about getting Lita and Chris back together.

"I know that that's completely untrue. You mean the world to me. You are more important to me than anyone else in this world besides my family of course. And even then, you're more important than a lot of my cousins and stuff. I can't stand them sometimes." He hoped his humor would win her over a little bit. She always said she loved his sense of humor. But that seemed to be ineffective as she didn't even budge. He cleared his throat, deciding to get a bit more serious.

"Anyways, I was upset because I didn't understand why you would jump to the conclusion that I didn't care about you. But I realized that I wasn't exactly letting you know that I do. All I have been talking about is getting Chris and Lita back together. And that was wrong. I should have been more focused on the two of us." He took a few steps closer as he saw her body loosen up some.

"So, while I was searching for you, I was thinking about what to say to make things better. And I realized that's not good enough. I have to show you that you mean more to me than anything else in this world." He kneeled down behind her. She finally turned to face him, looking less angry and little bit more curious.

"What are you talking about?"

"I want you to come with me so that we can tell everyone we're together. I understand that it means a lot to you for us to show everyone how much we care about each other." He stood up. "So, I'm gonna tell people that we're together and I hope you'll come with me." He began to walk to the door.

"Christian, wait." He turned as she stood up, water running down her calves. She smiled sweetly. "You would do that for me?"

"I would do anything for you."

She looked off into the crystal blue water of the pool. "I don't want you to do that."

Okay, now he had no clue what to do. "I thought-"

"I did want to tell everyone about us. But it shouldn't matter that the whole world knows about us for me to know that you care about me. I understand where you're coming from now. You want everyone's attentions to be on us when we do tell. Especially our best friends."

He stared at her for a few moments. "Are you sure? 'Cause we can still…", he pointed at the door.

"I'm sure. Come here."

He walked up to her and she pulled on his arms, wrapping them around her waist. And she in turn wrapped her own arms around his neck. "I'm sorry about earlier. I was just so upset about that tape. I guess I took it out on you." She ducked her head.

"It's okay. I understand. And I'm sorry that I haven't been focusing all of my energy on our own relationship." He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Trish sighed and looked up into his eyes. "You know what you could say to make all of this better?"

"What?"

"That you love me."

He realized that those three words hadn't been uttered once in their entire relationship. It was always, 'I missed you', or 'I care about you'. He stared into her brown eyes, ready to say the words that perfectly described how he felt about her. "I love you."

"I love you too." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him as though her life depended on it.


	13. Chapter 13

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Trish pulled her wrestling tights up her legs. She had a match against Jazz later that night. She definitely had quite the feat ahead of her. That woman had it in for her. And she and her over-abundance of muscles were definitely no joke.

The blonde looked across the room at the sullen redhead. She still hadn't completely recovered from watching that videotape the week before. Trish could only imagine how hard it must have been to watch that tape and relive one of the worst moments of her life like that. She still wondered who had done such a cruel thing and sent the tape.

"Lita?"

"Yeah?". The redhead tried to sound upbeat, but it didn't work at all.

"You still seem so down about that tape. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

Lita shook her head, her mouth seeming to be permanently formed into a frown. "No. I just need some time. It's like it's happening all over again. I can feel all of the pain that I felt then."

Trish bit on her lip. She was about to take a risk and ask the question on her mind. "So, I guess that means that you won't be telling Chris that you love him, will you?"

Lita looked up at her friend, letting her hands fall in her lap. "Why are you pushing this?"

Trish looked like a deer caught in headlights. "I-I'm not trying to push you into anything."

"Then why are you always badgering me about how I feel about Chris."

"Because…look at you. You're miserable."

"Because of him."

"Because you're not with him." The redhead groaned in frustration. Trish took her chances and kept pushing the issue. "It's been over a year and still, all you think about is Chris. Before you watched that damn tape, you were ready to go tell him how you really feel. Lita, it wasn't like Chris did that to you all over again. Clearly, someone is trying to keep you two apart."

"Trish, I know what you're saying. And yes, I can admit now that I am still as much in love with Chris as I was when we were together. But that tape reminded me that Chris is not the same person. After everything he's done to me, I should just take a hint and realize that he probably doesn't still love me the same the way." Lita gestured in frustration with her hands, trying to get Trish to understand.

The blonde walked over to her friend and sat down beside her. "Tell me why you don't think he still loves you. What about last Monday? Look what he did for you." Her voice had softened dramatically.

Tears began to spill out of the redhead's eyes as she thought back. She brought a hand up and wiped at her eyes. "How do I know that he wasn't trying to get me back on his good side again? How can I trust him after he tricked me into having sex with him? That still hurts. I can't forget that. Just like I can't forget that he left me in that ring last year."

Trish grabbed her best friend's hands, trying to console her. "I get the feeling that there's more to Chris's actions than one would think. And I think that maybe it's time for you to let go of those things and talk to him."

Lita shrugged. "I don't know if I can. I wouldn't know what to say."

"Tell him you love him." The redhead shrugged again, ready to tell her friend she wasn't sure, but Trish wouldn't let her doubt herself again. "Don't even say you don't know."

After a few moments, Lita sighed, sniffling a little a bit. "Just give me some time. I need to think things through."

Trish smiled and pushed a loose lock of fiery red hair behind her friend's ear. Trish spoke again, thinking out loud. "You know, you two share something so strong. Even after all of this time, you two are still so strongly bonded. I always hope that Christian and I will…" Trish looked up wide-eyed with her mouth agape.

Lita stared at her friend in shock and awe. "Excuse me? You and Christian?"

Trish shot up from her seat on the couch, unable to look in her best friend's eyes. How was she supposed to lie her way out of this one? "Uh…that's not what I meant."

"What did you mean?" The tone in Lita's voice said that there was no way Trish could get out of this one.

The blonde bit on her nails, racking her brain for what to say. "I-wh-what I meant to say was-" Trish jumped as her friend suddenly grabbed her shoulders from behind.

"You and Christian are dating!!"

Trish spun around. "Shhh! Don't say that so loudly."

"Oh my God!" Lita was beaming, for the first time in a long time. "How could you not tell me?! How long have you two been going out?! How did this happen?! Oh my God!"

Trish grabbed Lita's shoulders trying to calm her down. "Lita! Stop yelling! Okay?" She dropped her hands and walked away again. "I guess I'm busted."

"So busted." Trish turned around. Lita stood with her arms crossed over her chest, smirking. "How long?"

"About five months."

"You guys have been hiding this for five months?!" Lita jumped as Trish threw her finger over her lips, trying to get Lita to be quiet.

"Yes, we have, okay?"

"Why?"

Trish sighed. "Christian didn't want us to tell anyone until…"

Lita stepped closer to her friend, urging her on. "Until?"

"Until we got the two of you back together."

The smile faded from Lita's face. "So, this is why you keep trying to push me and Chris back together."

"Lita, it's not like that-"

"Of course it is. The sooner we got together, the sooner you and Christian could come out with your relationship, right? Because once upon a time, you hated Chris. You thought he was the worst thing for me."

"I will be honest with you. A part of me hoped that the two of you got together faster, so that we could come out with this. But at first I didn't want to help Christian put the two of you together. So we didn't do anything. And quite honestly we haven't really done anything except talk to the two of you so you could realize what it is you really want."

Lita threw her hands up in defense. "Okay. I don't want to argue with you about all of that right now. That's not important. What's important is that you and Christian are together. Are you two in love?"

Trish smiled unconsciously. "Yeah." She looked like a teenager thinking about her first boyfriend.

"I'm so happy for you." Lita wrapped her arms around her best friend, giving her a congratulatory embrace. She would have never seen this coming. Who would have thought that all this time Trish and Christian had a secret romance going on?

"Lita, just promise me one thing. Promise me you won't tell anyone. Not a soul."

"I promise."

Trish relaxed in her friend's hug. She knew Lita wouldn't break her promise. She trusted her. Now she just had to figure out if she was even going to tell Christian that Lita knew.

"Wassup Jay?"

"Uh…hey Chris." Christian stared at his friend at the odd tone in his voice. Chris sat there, just watching him with a wide smile on his face. That same look he'd had on his face for the past few days. "You have really got to tell me what you're so happy about."

"I'm just happy. Aren't I allowed to be happy? I mean aren't you happy?"

Christian shrugged, laughing his best friend off. "Sure, man. Get some help, okay?" He was about to walk away, but Chris's voice stopped him.

"No, seriously. Aren't you happy lately?"

Christian turned back around. "What did you smoke this morning?"

Chris shrugged. "Fine, I guess." He leaned over and began to tie his shoe, making Christian think he had dropped the subject. As soon as Christian turned his back to him once again, he added, "I just woulda thought you were sitting on top of the world after hooking up with Trish."

Christian's eyes nearly burst out of his head. The sound of his pounding heart was all he could hear in the now deathly silent room. He turned away very slowly, afraid to see the expression on Chris's face. He turned around to find the other blonde man smirking, looking like he was going to burst out in laughter.

"How…"

"Did I know? Well, I went looking for you the other day when you were acting all strange. And someone told me that they saw you walking toward the lobby. And lo and behold, who do I find kissing at the pool? Well, if it wasn't Jay and Trish…Trish and Jay."

"Oh my God." Christian groaned in aggravation, pacing the room. They should have been more careful. At least it was Chris that had seen and not someone else. At least he hoped no one else saw. He turned around with a look of desperation on his face. "Chris, were you the only one that saw us?"

"I think so. I was the only wrestler down there, looking in that direction. I don't think anyone else saw."

Christian sighed in relief. "Okay. You have got to keep this a secret."

"No problem. But please tell me why this is such a huge secret."

"Well, it is until I discuss some stuff with Trish."

Chris stood from his seat and approached his best friend. "Congratulations. Trish seems like a good woman. And you seem very happy."

"Yeah. It's pretty amazing. And she is an amazing woman." Christian smiled at the thought of his girlfriend. "I love her."

Chris smiled, but it quickly faded. Christian couldn't help but notice that. "What's wrong?"

Chris stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down to the ground. "I was thinking about Lita."

Christian put his hands up. "Say no more." He walked to the door and opened it. "Come on."

Chris was utterly confused by Christian's actions. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see. Just come on."

This was bound to be interesting. He could only imagine where Christian was trying to take him. He followed, eyeing his best friend cautiously.


	14. Chapter 14

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Trish had just put on her shorts and t-shirt, ready for bed. She walked out of the bathroom to find Lita sulking in the couch. The television wasn't even turned on.

"Lita. Are you gonna go to bed soon?"

The redhead simply shrugged, not even turning to face her friend. Trish was about to speak again but there was knocking at the door. Lita didn't even respond to the knocking, simply sitting on the couch, staring at her fingers. Trish sighed and went to answer the door.

Trish was speechless as she opened the door. She couldn't believe Christian had come to visit her. She knew what Lita would think. But what shocked her even more was that Chris Jericho was with him. She simply moved out of the way as the two entered the room, Chris more reluctant than his best friend.

Lita turned for the first time, her eyes instantly locking with those of Chris Jericho.

"Okay. Let's get this straight. I brought Chris here, so that you and he could have a chat." Christian motioned to Lita and Chris as he spoke. "I really think it's about time that the two of you had a civilized discussion for once, instead of going at each other's throats. There is so much that has been left unsaid between the two of you and it's time to clear the air." Christian moved out of the line of sight between Lita and Chris.

Lita grabbed one of the pillows on the couch and clutched it. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Lita, you know there is so much to say. Instead of telling the two of us however, the two of you need to say it to each other." Trish stood by her boyfriend, trying to help him along in this desperate attempt to solve this problem.

Chris groaned. "I think you two are reading way too far into this. Whatever there was between me and Lita is done. There is no us anymore. Therefore there is nothing to discuss."

"That explains why you never stop talking about her or thinking about her.", Christian retorted.

"That goes for you too." Trish pointed at her own best friend, not letting the spotlight get off of her.

"This war between the two of you has been going on long enough. If you two talk, then maybe so much will clear up. Maybe we can go back to the old days when we were all friends." Christian tried to encourage the two former lovers who were both looking off in different corners of the room.

"Well, you know what? That will never happen. As much as I want to, I can never trust her again," Chris suddenly snapped.

Lita threw her pillow down as she rose to her feet. "I never did anything to make you not trust me! You're the one who ruined our relationship! You broke _my_ heart! I'm the one who can't trust you! Especially not after the stunt you pulled a while ago in that locker room! I bet you were so proud of yourself!"

Chris took a few steps closer to her, his chest heaving with his increasing anger. "Do you ever stop pitying yourself? Do you ever stop denying the fact that you are pretty much to blame for the end of our relationship?"

Lita screamed in frustration, pulling her hands through her hair. "Stop saying that! You never ever want to say what it is that I did! Do you think that you can say that so many times that even I will start to believe it?"

"Why would you want me to talk about it in front of anyone? Are you really not at all ashamed of what you did? Are you so coldhearted that you don't even care?" Chris looked at her as though she were some kind of inhumane monster.

"You are out of your fucking mind! Fine Chris! Keep playing these games! Keep trying to make the whole world believe that you are innocent! You're just realizing that you fucked up last year when you left me in that ring and now you're trying to pretend that you had this great reason for doing it." Lita was beet red, unable to control her emotions.

"Okay, you wanna hear it?! You really want to hear it?! If I say it, will that bring back some memories?!", he asked mockingly.

Lita made a sound of mock relief. "Please do! Please tell us what it is that I supposedly did to cause you to turn on me." She folded her arms over her chest, awaiting his answer.

He stepped closer to her, so that he was mere inches away from her. "Okay, Lita…You killed our baby. Does that ring a bell now? Huh?"

The expression on Lita's face completely changed, to an almost ghostlike expression. Her arms slowly unfolded. Chris didn't let up. "Remember? Remember driving to that abortion clinic and killing our baby? After all our talks about getting married and having children? Remember?"

Lita brought her hands up to cover her mouth, staring at him wide-eyed. She began to cower away from him, but he stayed in her face. "You always told me how much you loved me. How much you couldn't wait to marry me and have children with me. Those were all lies. You went to that abortion clinic and killed our innocent little child. And even better, you didn't say a word about it to me. And apparently didn't plan on ever admitting it."

The redhead's eyes were filled to the brim with tears now. She closed her eyes and ducked her head slightly, shaking it. "Don't cry now Lita. You never did anything, remember? Or are you finally admitting that you are a liar and a killer?!"

Christian and Trish watched on in horror. Trish made a move to go comfort and protect her friend against the harsh accusations. Christian however caught her arm and held her back. She yelled out to Chris. "Stop yelling at her! How dare you accuse her of such terrible things! Can't you see how much you're upsetting her?!"

Neither Chris nor Lita seemed to acknowledge Trish's comments. Chris watched Lita harshly as she stood with her face buried in her hands. She finally looked up, her eyes red with tears continuing to spill out. "How did you know?"

"Excuse me?" He stared at her in utter disbelief for a few moments. "All you care about is how I found out? You are a piece of work. All you care about is protecting your sick little secret." Chris looked at her with disgust.

"How did you find out?" Lita seemed to ignore his remarks. Her voice was filled with pain and shock.

Trish shook her head in disbelief. Had Lita really done such a terrible thing? Had she really gotten that abortion without telling Chris a word about it? The tiny blonde placed her hand over her heart, not believing what she was hearing and seeing in front of her. Christian held her more closely.

"All these years you lie to me, and you expect me to tell you how I found out your disgusting secret?" Chris's fists were clenched into tight little fists as he gazed angrily into the eyes of his former girlfriend.

Lita opened her mouth to speak again but choked on her words with the sobs that were beginning to overwhelm her. "How?", she managed to squeak out.

"I can't believe you. You killed our baby and that's all that you care about. I hope you suffer the rest of your life with the guilt of what you've done. Although you clearly do not seem to be too upset about that." Chris turned away from her, making his way to the door.

"Chris, it's not like that." Lita was sobbing heavily.

He spun around, his eyes inflamed with fury. "Oh really? The hell it isn't." He turned around again, ready to exit the room. As soon as his hand touched the doorknob, her words filled his ears again.

"It wasn't your baby."

Author's Note: Soooo….what do you guys think??? I'm on my knees, begging you…please review!!! I really, really want to know what you guys think about where this story is going. Some unanswered questions are finally about to be resolved with the next chapter. But I want to warn you guys, that it may be a little tough to read. But in order for me to finish it and get it up, I need those reviews…they're my motivation. Okay, enough rambling, lol.


	15. Chapter 15

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Author's Note: One quick thing. As I said last time, this chapter may be a little difficult to read because of the content. I would love it if you would take the risk though! I hope you guys enjoy it!

Her words shocked everyone in the room. No one had been expecting that blow. The silence in the air was heavy. Christian and Trish were watching on wide-eyed. Chris stood with his back to her, his hand squeezing the doorknob.

"Please let me explain." Her soft sobs were the only sounds that could be heard in that hotel room. Chris turned around slowly. He was absolutely speechless from that point. Lita pleaded more. "Please listen to me-"

"You cheated on me?" Even after finding out about the abortion, he never imagined that she had cheated on him.

"Chris-" She was still crying.

"No! I can't." He turned away from her once again.

"Please listen!" He stopped walking again at her plea. "It's not what you think."

"Then what is it?! What else could it possibly be? You said it wasn't my baby. What else could it be?!"

Lita brought her hands up to her face again as the tears continued to fall.

_Lita sat in the patio chair, watching Chris's family. His father was making burgers on the grill. His mother was socializing with his aunts and uncles. And Chris was having a good time with his cousin Rob._

_She loved his family. They were so close. They had something that she'd always hoped that her own family would have. They loved each other. And it was clear that Chris was the most important person in his parents' lives. She laughed as she thought that Chris was such a momma's boy. And he had a very close relationship with his father as well. _

_She also thought it was amazing that even though Chris was an only child, he and his cousin were probably closer than most siblings. Lita watched as the two joked around with Chris's father. She was glad Chris had such a supportive, close family. They were all really nice, loving people._

_And that fact made her feel even more guilty that she was currently secluding herself from the activities going on. She just wasn't in the mood to party or socialize. She pulled her knees up and laid her head on them as she wrapped her arms around her legs. They were supposed to be enjoying the weekend at Chris's parents' house. And she just felt like crap._

_She looked up again to see Chris, his father, and Rob gathered around the grill. They seemed to be involved in a deep conversation. And Lita wasn't sure, but Rob seemed to be a little out of it. Rob walked away from the other two men. Just a moment later, Chris excused himself from his father and made his way over to Lita. He knelt down in front of her and put his hand on her knee. "Now tell me why you're sitting here all by yourself?"_

_She gave him a half-smile. "I just don't feel like partying. That's all."_

"_What's wrong?", he asked, showing much concern as he pushed her hair behind her ears._

"_I don't know. I just don't feel so great. I really don't know what it is. I think I'm just tired."_

"_You can go upstairs and go to sleep.", he suggested._

_Lita shook her head. "I don't want to be rude and leave like that. It's only 7:00. So I don't even know why I'm tired."_

"_It's okay. My family will understand. You're allowed to be tired. Come on, let's go upstairs." He stood and reached his hand out to her. She grabbed his hand but pulled him back instead of following him._

"_No. I'll go. But you stay down here with your family. You aren't with them for most of the year. And I want you to spend time with them." She stood from the patio chair._

"_Are you sure? I really don't mind."_

"_I'm sure. Stay. Have fun. I'm just gonna go to sleep." She pressed a kiss to his lips and walked to the sliding doors that led into the house. She entered the house and as she turned to shut the door, she waved to him._

_Chris certainly loved his parents as much as they loved him. He had bought them this house a couple years back to show his gratitude for the amazing job they did raising him. It was a beautiful three-story house with a huge backyard and front yard. Her parents were definitely shocked and surprised when he presented them with their gift._

_Lita walked up to the second floor where Chris's room was. His parents had moved all of his old stuff out of their former home into this room. Lita loved how Chris was spoiled as a child. He didn't have a twin-sized bed when he was younger like most kids, but he had a king-sized bed. _

_Lita went over to her weekend bag and pulled out her toothbrush and toothpaste. She went to the bathroom across the hall. She set her toothbrush and toothpaste down and was about to turn the water on when a voice called out to her. She stepped out of the bathroom._

"_Rob? What's wrong?"_

"_Can you help me for a second?" His words were slurred. He was definitely drunk. That must have been what those three were talking about before. Chris had told her Rob had a drinking problem. As much as he loved his cousin, he couldn't stand him when he was drunk. _

"_Sure." He nodded and went back into the room. She walked further down the hall, passing a couple rooms to get to him. His room was at the end of the hall. She stepped in the room, not seeing him at first. She squealed as she was suddenly pulled into the room and the door slammed shut._

_She didn't have time to make a noise as she suddenly felt an arm around her neck from behind, choking her, and then duck tape suddenly covered her mouth. Her attempted screams were muffled by the tape. The arm stayed around her neck and she heard a breathy voice. _

"_I always thought you were so beautiful." She whimpered as she felt his hot breath against her ear and his hand run down her cheek. She could barely breathe as he held his arm around her neck. She clawed at his arm but ceased her actions as he squeezed tighter. "I want to know what Chris finds so great about you."_

_He threw her across the room into the bed. Lita cringed as she didn't quite make it onto the bed, her shoulder slamming into the edge. She didn't have time to recover and run as he came toward her and threw her on her stomach on the bed. He covered her body with his, whispering into her ear, "Come on, Lita. You know you want it. I've seen you looking at me." That strong alcohol stench filled her nostrils and made her want to hurl. She shut her eyes as he clumsily ran his fingers along her face. "Every time I see you on television, I get so hot for you. And whenever Chris brings you around, I just want to feel all over your gorgeous body._

_She fought him as he tried to turn her over. He climbed on top of her and pressed his knees into her legs causing her to groan in pain as she struggled to push him off. He leaned over and held her hands above her head, not allowing her to move._

"_Stop fighting it Lita. You don't have to pretend. I won't tell Chris."_

_Tears spilled out of her eyes. She tried hopelessly to fight him off, not winning the battle. He overpowered her, holding both of her wrists with one hand and squeezed them until she was sure her circulation was cut off to her hands. His other hand ran down her body, over her breast and to her shorts. She sobbed as he folded down the top._

_He ran his fingers along the now exposed area. Goosebumps spread across her entire body as he touched her. She struggled to move, the pain in her legs growing immensely. She couldn't open her eyes and see his face. She was sobbing now. _

_Her body went limp. She gave up fighting. She knew there was no way she was getting out of this room. Everything blurred. She tried to ignore the pain as he pulled her shorts and underwear off and pounded in and out of her. She balled her fists up as the tears continued to spill out of her eyes._

_She wasn't sure how long he was there. She didn't open her eyes once. She sighed as she felt him lift off of her. She heard the door to his room click. She brought her hands up to her face, covering it as she cried harder. _

_What was she doing? She needed to get out of there before he came back. She slid off of the bed and pulled on her underwear and shorts, not bothering to take off the duct tape on her mouth. She tiptoed down the hallway into the bathroom across from Chris's room and locked the door behind her. She collapsed on the floor as her tears returned. She pulled the tape from her mouth, whimpering at the pain. She brought her knees up and placed her elbows on them as she held her head in her hands._

_How could this happen? How could Rob do that to her? Chris had always told her that Rob acted crazy when he was drunk but she never imagined him doing this. He was so nice to her when she first met him. This had just come out of the blue. _

_Her thighs had deep red marks on them from where he had been sitting on her. She stood and turned on the water in the bathtub. She needed to wash away the traces of his touch. She needed to cleanse herself. She took off her clothes and stepped under the hot water, letting it run on her face and over her body._

_Lita stepped out of the bathtub after her shower and put her clothes back on to go to Chris's room. She prayed that Rob wasn't in the hallway or didn't hear her walk through. She went into Chris's room and shut the door quietly behind herself. She needed to change out of these clothes and throw them away. She put on some long pajama pants to cover up the marks on her legs and put on a white wife-beater. She laid down on Chris's bed, not even bothering to pull back the covers. She shut her eyes tightly and tears slid out of the corner of her eyes._

_She wanted to run downstairs and tell Chris. He would protect her. She needed to be in his presence and feel his arms around her. But something was stopping her. What would she say? How would she ever explain that the cousin he considered to be his brother had raped her? That would ruin this entire weekend. That would ruin his life. The one person he trusted more than almost anyone had betrayed him and taken advantage of his girlfriend. She didn't even know where she would begin or what she would say. She would probably break down into tears again._

_All of this would just ruin Chris's whole weekend. He was having such a great time. How could she tell him this? How could she break his heart like that? Sure, she didn't break his heart. His cousin was the one that raped her. But she couldn't imagine breaking that news to him. And she couldn't imagine upsetting the entire family. _

_Would Chris even want to be with her after he found out about this? What if he always looked at her and thought of Rob having sex with her? Thought about the day his cousin backstabbed him, bringing an end to an amazing lifelong bond? She couldn't bear to lose Chris, especially not now. She needed him more than anything._

_She clutched the pillow to her head. She wanted to run away from this place. Her entire body was sore. She knew that in the morning it would be even worse. In the morning…they still had two more days to spend there on their extended weekend. How was she going to be able to survive that? _

_Lita's body tensed as she heard the door open. She prayed that it wasn't Rob returning for more. She dug her nails into the pillow as she pretended to be asleep. The person approached her bedside and stood over her. She was sure she was breathing heavily. She sensed the person kneel down and place a hand on her. _

_She relaxed as she recognized Chris's touch. It was so soft, gentle and calming. Nothing like how Rob had touched her earlier. She still didn't open her eyes, however. She wasn't sure how she would react upon seeing him. She heard him walk around to other side of the bed and heard what she thought to be the sound of the covers being pulled back. She then heard him walk back around the bed. He lifted her from the bed with ease but carefully. She leaned against him, needing to feel his touch to feel moderately safe again. He walked around the bed and carefully placed her under the sheets. He then made sure she was comfortably situated in the bed and pulled the covers up on her. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead._

_Lita held her breath as she sensed him walk away. Her heart dropped as she heard the bedroom door shut. She wished he would have stayed and gone to bed. She needed him to hold her in his arms to help make the pain go away._

_The door reopened a few minutes later and she heard Chris reenter. At least, she hoped it was Chris. The person walked to the other side of the bed and crawled under the covers. She could smell his scent. It was him. Thank God. She needed him more than anything right now. The sound of the light clicking off came as he laid down in the bed. He scooted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. She moved further into his embrace and he held her closer. Maybe now, going to sleep would be a little bit easier. Just a little bit…_

Lita sniffled after she'd finished her story. The silence in the room was heavy. The three other occupants of the room had looks of astonishment on their faces. They were absolutely speechless, blown away by the story. Lita found the courage to continue speaking.

"I couldn't tell you because I just didn't know what to say. I was afraid of what could happen after I told you. I didn't want to take the chance of this dramatically affecting our relationship. And I couldn't bear hurting you. I loved you so much." She paused as she felt the tears coming back again. Reliving the memories had just opened up the floodgates. It was something she'd repressed for so long.

"And I guess I just didn't want to ever think about it again. I wanted to pretend as though it never happened, instead of reliving it over and over again for the rest of my life. I couldn't stand the thought of you looking at me everyday and thinking about this. Everything was so perfect back then. I wanted it to stay that way forever. I knew that if I could just get over it in my own time, then it would be okay. There would be no need in bringing it up and putting your entire family through that torture." She sighed. Her body was trembling. The tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Even though she fought not to recall the event, it was always there, always at the back of her mind.

She ran shaky hands through her long red hair. "I guess I didn't make the right decision. I handled it all wrong. I probably should have told you. I should have told you about everything, from the…" She hesitated, not sure if she could say it again. "From that to the abortion." She swallowed the huge lump in her throat as she looked to the floor for a few moments, swaying from side to side. She then looked into his eyes once again. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. That was never my intention. I was never trying to deceive you and I hate that you thought that all this time. I never lied. I wanted to have a family with you more than anything in this world. But when I found out I was pregnant with _his _baby, I could not bring that child into this world. That would have been too painful. I cried all the way to the clinic and all the way back because that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

"I would give anything in this world for that to not have happened and to go back to the way things used to be. I would give anything for us to be together like we were before all of that. For us to be happy. And for Rob to never have done what he did. Even if after this we never speak to each other again, I just want you to know that I loved you with all of my heart," She brought her hand up to her mouth as she felt herself about to lose it again. She continued speaking through her sobs, "And I still do. I thought I was protecting you, but I guess…"

She stopped speaking as she began crying again. Why was this happening? She thought that what happened in the past would stay in the past. She thought she would never have to think about it to this degree again. And then there were all the regrets that she felt now. Regrets about how she handled the situation. Regrets about the fact that it ruined her relationship with Chris. And regrets that instead of protecting him, she'd just hurt him even more in the end.

Chris had stood silently the entire time, simply watching her and li.stening to her. Lita had no idea what he thought of her now or what he was feeling at all. For the first time, he moved, walking towards her. She watched him as he came to her, not sure what he was going to say or do. And she could have died right there as she looked into his tear-filled, anguished blue eyes. She tensed up as he reached out to her. He pulled her into his arms, holding her closely, holding her in a way he hadn't in over a year.

The redhead cried even harder at the much-forgotten feel of his embrace. She buried her face in his neck, as she realized that maybe this is what should have happened over the past year. He held her tightly and ran his hand up and down her back as the other caressed her head. She brought her hands up to his back, digging her fingers into his back as she felt the pain all over again. She never wanted to let go of him. She needed this, being comforted in a way she never had been.

Time seemed to stop for that moment. They stood there as though they were the only two people in the world. She didn't know how long they'd been standing there, before she stopped crying. Even after she was done crying, she stayed there with her face buried in his neck, feeling safe as he held her just as firmly as he had in the first moment of their embrace.

"Don't feel guilty. It's not your fault." Just hearing him say that lifted a ton of stress and pressure off of her. His voice was a soft, comforting whisper in her ear. "I appreciate that you tried to protect me. And I'm sorry that we wasted so much time hating each other."

Lita finally lifted her head up and looked into his eyes. He continued to talk to her. "Even after hearing that, I want you to know that I will never look at you differently. I loved you then and I love you now just the same. We've had a rough year but I think and I hope that we could work past all of this and at least be friends."

She pushed away from him, turning in the opposite direction. She crossed her arms over her chest, breathing in deeply. "I don't want to be friends." She walked farther away, still not turning around. She didn't think she could look into his eyes. "I can't be friends with you." She inhaled deeply, finally getting the courage to turn and face him.

His expression was filled with bewilderment and hurt. She swallowed hard as her shoulders fell and she shook her head hopelessly. "I want more than that. I want to be with you. I _need_ to be with you. I _need_ you."

Chris stared at her for a few moments. "I was hoping you'd say that because I need you too." He walked up to the redhead and grabbed her face, kissing her before she could make a sound or a move. He kissed her with all he had, making sure the kiss said everything he felt about her. That he loved her and needed her in his life. He wanted nothing more than to be with her. He wanted to move on and put the past behind them.

As the kiss ended, Lita smiled. She smiled, probably, her first genuine smile in a long time. She hugged him again, already wanting to feel his arms around her.

The sound of sniffling became clear. The two of them had been in their own world and had completely forgotten about the two other people in the room. They looked over to see Christian holding onto Trish, who was teary-eyed. "That had to be the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I'm so happy for you guys.", the blonde woman managed to say through tears. Suddenly she looked up at Christian and let go of him.

Lita looked to Chris, trying to read his thoughts. She could tell that he knew what she knew. She turned back to the other two in the room. "You don't have to pretend anymore. We both know."

Trish smiled bashfully as she looked at Christian. "I guess our plan worked huh?"

"Yeah. So, you know what that means. We can finally feel free to excuse ourselves from the room and have time to ourselves." He grinned and grabbed her hand.

"You're right. Just one moment." Trish walked over to her best friend and gave her the biggest hug she could manage. "I love you so much. And I'm so sorry about everything that happened. And I'm happy that you can finally find some peace." The blonde pulled away and offered the best smile she could muster. Lita returned a smile of gratitude.

Trish rejoined her boyfriend. He then looked to the other two in the room. "We'll be seeing you later. I'm glad all of this finally cleared up." He sent a look to Chris, saying 'I told you so' and proceeded to leave the room with Trish following closely behind.

Lita waited until the door had closed to speak again. "So do you forgive me?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course I do. I mean, there's really nothing to forgive. The real question is: do you forgive me?"

"I guess so.", she said playfully. "I promise to always tell you the truth about everything in the future."

"So do I. We are never going to waste time like this again." He paused and looked into her hazel eyes, his expression suddenly becoming very serious. "I love you."

"I love you too." She laid her head against his chest once again. She wanted to stay that way forever. And she was glad that now, they finally had the chance to do that.

Author's Note: Phew…that was a long one! At long last, the couple is reunited! Please, please, PLEASE let me know what you guys think. I really love to hear from you guys and hear your opinions (good or bad). There are a couple more chapters left because there are some things that need to be wrapped up. I have one more thing to ask of you all. I'm really needing story ideas. So, if you guys could just leave a quick review with ideas you'd be interested in reading, I would love it. You can even suggest ideas with other pairings, but I'm not gonna lie, odds are I'll be biased towards Jericho/Lita. And if any of the ideas just excite me, I'll take it and run with it!


	16. Chapter 16

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

Chris groaned as the high-pitched ringing of the phone woke him. He brought his hand up and rubbed his eyes. Turning over on his stomach, he answered his cell-phone and dragged it to his ear.

"Hello?", he muttered scratchily into the phone.

"Apparently you weren't awake."

"What time is it?" Chris couldn't even open his eyes as he lay on the pillow, lazily holding the phone against his ear.

"12:30."

Chris moaned sleepily into the phone. He should probably get up, but he just didn't have the energy to. It had been a long night.

"Okay…Well, I was calling to see if you wanted to come out to lunch with us. I was supposed to call you and Trish is calling Lita to see."

Chris mumbled incoherently in response.

"I'll take that as a no."

"No…Let me get up first. Thirty minutes."

"Okay Chris…bye." Chris mumbled again as he shut his phone and placed it back. He flipped back over, letting his head fall to the side.

He suddenly felt a hand run across his chest, then up to his face and his head was being pulled back up. He then felt lips on his. Soft lips. Then her tongue was in his mouth. He just went along with it, too tired to object, not that he wanted to. He smiled when she pulled back from him.

"That's quite the wake up call." He finally looked up, meeting her beautiful hazel eyes. She smiled and watched her fingers as she walked them down his bare chest. "When did you wake up?"

"I heard your phone ringing and felt you move. And I was hoping you weren't going to leave me just yet." She ran her hand over his abs. "I've missed touching you."

"Well, you did a lot of that last night, now didn't you?" Chris yawned. "And you completely tired me out at the same time."

She laughed as she continued to caress his chest. Silence followed her laughter. After a few moments, Chris broke the silence. "Lita, this may not be the time for this, but I have to say it. I'm sorry for the way I treated you over the past year. You didn't deserve all of the things I did to you. Especially not leaving you in the ring or…the way I treated you after we had sex in the locker room."

She didn't look up once. Her facial expression remained nonchalant as she slid her hand over his abdomen. "It's okay Chris. It's really okay. Now I understand why you always acted the way you did. It makes sense that you were upset."

"Well, now I feel guilty. I wish I could have been there for you. You needed me then."

Lita looked at him finally. "Don't say that because that was not your fault. It was mine. I could have been honest. I could have told you everything from the beginning." Her eyes glistened with tears as images of the rape sprang into her mind again. Chris pulled her down to him, hugging her close. He caressed the smooth skin of her arm, trying to comfort her.

"The past is the past. Let's not worry about that. Let's move on from the past. We have a whole future ahead of us." He felt her smile against him and he felt her body relax. "That was Christian on the phone, by the way, inviting us to lunch with him and Trish. I told him we'd be there in thirty minutes."

"I guess we should get up then." She lifted off of him. "By the way, I am definitely ready to move on with you. I never thought we could just go back to being like this, but this is probably the easiest thing I've ever done." She smiled and kissed the love of her life once more before leaving the bed to get dressed.

* * *

"I never thought I would see the two of you together like this again." Trish gushed as she watched the couple across the table. Chris had his arm wrapped around Lita, intertwining their fingers, as she lay her head on his shoulder.

The redhead watched her best friend, catching the look on her face. She knew this was coming.

"This is so cute and all. But Chris, I was wondering if I could borrow my best friend for a moment." Trish kept her eyes trained on Lita.

Chris nodded. "As long as you promise to bring her back soon." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head as he released her, allowing her to follow Trish.

The blonde led her friend farther away from the chairs before turning to her with her arms crossed over her chest and a mock displeased look on her face. A still-beaming Lita watched her friend in silence, waiting for the questions that were about to come.

"How could you not tell me about all of that? I thought you told me everything. I could have helped you through that." Trish's words weren't so much angry as perplexed. She would have sworn that she knew absolutely everything about the redhead up until the previous day. Lita usually trusted her enough to confide in her with such details. What was so different now?

The smile had fallen from Lita's face. "Trish, you know I trust you. And I do tell you everything. But this…I couldn't talk about it Trish. I didn't want to think about it. I didn't even want to let myself think about it, let alone tell anyone else. I couldn't bare to speak the words."

Trish smiled sympathetically, seeing the anguish in her best friend's eyes. She pulled her into her arms. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to upset you. I just couldn't believe what you were saying last night. I was so shocked." Lita said nothing in response, but simply sighed. Trish struggled to change the subject. "Look, let's not talk about that. How was your first night back with Chris?"

Lita pulled away from Trish, emerging with a look of rapture on her face. She placed her hand over her heart, as she glanced up dreamily. "It was absolutely amazing. It's been too long since we've been together. It reminded me of just how good it always was. And when I woke up this morning and he was there, it was the most incredible feeling." She looked to the small blonde in front of her. "I really have to thank you for urging us to talk."

"No-" Trish tried to wave off the gratitude, but Lita insisted.

"Yes. I mean, we never would have known the truth and we might have hated each other forever. But you know what?" Lita turned around and looked to the table where Chris and Christian were sitting, making eye contact with her man. He smiled and then went back to talking to Christian. Lita turned around again to face Trish. "I think this is the happiest I've been in over a year."

"Good. And it's going to stay that way." Trish nodded in the direction of their two boyfriends, suggesting that they return to the men. Lita very willingly agreed. They returned to their respective seats. Lita watched her boyfriend as she sat down beside him. The look on his face was very suspicious. He was up to something. She quickly glanced at Christian, who tried to play innocent and then to Trish, who was just as baffled as she was.

"What's going on Chris?" He inhaled deeply and turned to her, so that he could speak to her directly.

"Well, I was planning on going to my mom and dad's house this weekend since we're so close to them right now." He noticed the way her breath caught and she stiffened up. He reached out to her, silently pleading with her to listen before turning him down. "I know we haven't been back together that long, but I really would love for you to come with me."

She stared at him, wide-eyed for a few moments. She then shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't go back there." She scooted out of the seat and quickly exited the restaurant.

There was no way she could go back to that house and relive all of those painful memories. She let her legs carry her out of the restaurant and she wasn't quite sure where they were taking her now. She felt a hand clasp around her arm, halting her progress.

"Lita, wait! Please! Listen to me."

Lita sighed and turned to face her boyfriend and two best friends. "Chris, I can't-"

"Sweetie." He stepped closer to her and placed a hand on each side of her face. "Sweetie, I know it's hard. I know. But I want you to come with me and talk to my parents. I want them to see that we're back together and nothing is coming between us again. I want to clear up this whole situation. I love you and I want things to go back to the way they were before."

Her eyes filled with tears and she looked away from him. "I know. But I don't think I'm ready."

Chris was silent for a few moments, just observing her. "You're afraid that he'll be there, aren't you?"

Her face soured at the thought and she shifted her weight from leg to leg. Chris forced her to look at him again. "I promise you that everything will be okay. He will never hurt you again. Babe, if we're gonna have a future together, you can't run away from my family all the time. That's not an ultimatum; I just want you to get to the point where you feel safe at least being in the house again. And the longer you wait to face this, the harder it's going to be."

She stared at him through her blurry eyes. Finally she sighed. "Okay. Okay. I'll go. But I will _not_ spend the night there. If you want to stay there, you have to take me to a hotel. I'm just not ready for that."

"Okay. You've got it." He pulled her closer and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Thank you so much for doing this for me."

She lost herself in his loving blue eyes. "I'd do anything for you."

Author's Note: I hope you guys don't mind that they're being all lovey dovey, lol. I figured I had made them suffer enough. So, it looks like Lita's about to take a trip to the past. Review, review, review!! I'm still looking for ideas for new stories. I know you guys want to keep reading about Lita and Jericho, so I need some inspiration. Inspiration reviews + ideas. Check out my new story Cry…of course, it is another Jericho and Lita fic.


	17. Chapter 17

Title: Truth Hurts

Author: Shantay

Email: R…for the first chapter, PG13 for the rest

Content: Foul language, sex….

Timeline: anytime back in the day

Spoilers: Nothing really…

Summary: There's a lot more to the apparent hatred between Chris Jericho and Lita…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these people…tear…

Distribution: Please just ask me first.

"We're almost there. Are you okay?"

Lita looked over and simply nodded, not sure if she could get the words out. She held her breath as the familiar road leading to his parents' house came into view. Chris reached out and took hold of her hand with his free one. He brought it up and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

"I promise you that everything will be okay."

She nodded and took in a deep breath. She needed to calm down. She was definitely overreacting. Chris was there with her and she knew for a fact that he would never let her be hurt. But then again, that was true before and she was still raped. No…she needed to have faith. They were just stopping by to visit his parents.

The car came to a stop outside of the white, two-storied house. Lita stepped out of the convertible, carefully eyeing the house. She struggled to keep her breathing steady. She knew she could handle this. She would do it. For Chris.

"Ready?" Chris had walked around the car and taken hold of her hand. She looked at him blankly and nodded. She turned and began to walk toward the house but he held on to her hand and pulled her back. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure." She stated those words with conviction. "Let's go." They walked up to the front door. Just as Chris was about to press the doorbell, Lita pulled back on his hand.

"What's wrong?"

Her face was filled with worry. "Your parents hate me, don't they? Because they know about the abortion right?"

"Don't worry about it. When we get in there, we'll just explain everything to them. You'll be fine, I promise." He raised his hand, ready to ring the doorbell and looked to her for approval. She nodded and he pressed the little button.

After a few minutes, the door burst open and his mother came into view. She threw her hands over her mouth in surprise. "Chris! I didn't know that you were stopping by! Come here!" She pulled her son into her arms, giving him the biggest hug. When she stepped back, she looked over and caught sight of Lita. "Oh…" She looked back to her son. Chris was smiling.

"Are you gonna let us in or do we just get to stand outside all day?"

"Oh yeah." She definitely looked quite perplexed. But she led them in anyways. "Ted! Come downstairs!" She yelled up to her husband as they walked to the living room. They all took seats on the couch, Lita looking clearly uncomfortable. She sat with her legs crossed and hands in her lap, looking down. Chris rubbed her knee, trying to encourage her.

"What's up…" Ted Irvine paused on the steps as he saw his son. "My boy!" Chris stood up and met his father, giving him a hug. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good. I can't complain."

Ted's eyes traveled over to the couch where the redhead sat uncomfortably. "Lita…"

"Hi Mr. Irvine." Her heart was beating fast and she definitely needed some water.

Chris brought the attention back to him. "Mom, dad, I have good news." He sat back down on the couch next to Lita as his father sat beside his mother. He took hold of her hand as she looked at him. Chris kept the smile on his face and his sight on his parents. "Lita and I are back together."

"Oh." His mother said, trying to comprehend. Lita tried to muster a smile in the intensely awkward situation.

"How about we all go into the kitchen and get something to drink?" Chris was trying anything to ease the situation. All four of them went to the kitchen as his mother took requests and went to get their drinks. He, Lita and his father sat around the chairs around the island counter in the kitchen. Once his mother returned, Chris's father spoke.

"So, let's not beat around the bush here. You two had a terrible break-up and have pretty much hated each other for the past year and a half. How is it that you two are all of a sudden back together?" Lita couldn't help but notice the pointed look he sent her. She couldn't imagine what they must have thought about her.

They were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Ted put his hand up. "Hold the conversation. I'm gonna get the door."

Lita looked over to Chris's mother who seemed to be dissecting the redhead with her gaze. She looked to Chris. "Excuse me. I'm gonna take a little walk by the pool."

Chris sent her a look as she walked through the patio doors. He looked back to his mother. "Ma, I know what you're thinking-"

"Chris, why are you doing this to yourself? She's just going to hurt you again."

"Mom, you don't understand. There's something I need to tell you."

* * *

Lita walked along the side of the crystal blue pool. What was she thinking? She knew she shouldn't have come. His parents hated her and it was pretty clear. She looked back through the clear glass windows that formed the patio door and saw Ted Irvine re-enter the kitchen. She wondered what had happened to the person at the door.

She shook her head. This was all too awkward. If she could, she would hop right in that car and drive the three hours back to the hotel. She wrapped her arms around herself as she continued to pace back and forth. She was just going to toughen up and go back inside. Chris was right. Once they explained all of this, everything would be fine. Or at least, it should be fine.

Lita stopped in her place as she felt a presence behind her. Chris must have come out to get her to come back inside. She hadn't even heard the door open. She turned around.

She froze in place.

"Lita? What are you doing here?" An equally confused Rob stood before her, just as shocked to see her as she was to see him.

She blinked a few times. Her heart was racing. Images of that night invaded her mind. "Oh God," she said breathlessly as she placed a hand over her heart. She couldn't help the wave of fear that swept over her as her legs locked in place and she stared at the man who'd caused her whole world to come crashing down.

Both of their heads shot in the direction of the patio door as it slid open. Chris Jericho stood in the doorway with his eyesight fixed on Rob. Lita knew that look on his face. She glanced at Rob, who seemed completely oblivious to the entire situation. As soon as she brought her gaze back to Chris, she noticed him getting ready to attack. "Chris, no!"

Chris charged at his cousin, taking him down to the ground. He balled his hands up and began to pummel the helpless man beneath him.

Chris's mother had come from the kitchen and was shouting from the doorway. "Chris! Stop!"

Luckily, Ted Irvine came running around from the front of the house after hearing the commotion. He wrapped his arms around his son and struggled to pull him off of his cousin. He finally managed to stop Chris's blows and pull his angered son away. Rob scooted backwards and leaned on his elbow while his hand felt at his busted lip. He stared at his cousin angrily and in utter confusion.

Ted finally managed to calm his son. He stood between the two young men and tried to get his son to focus on him. Chris stared at the patio floor. Ted placed his hands on Chris's shoulders. "What the hell has gotten into you? Huh? What was that?"

Chris's mother, who was visibly shaken, came over to her husband and son. "Ted, go take care of Rob. I'm gonna take Chris inside." She sent a look to her husband, notifying him that they had a lot to talk about later. She placed a hand on Chris's arm, pulling him in the direction of the kitchen. "Come on honey. Come inside."

Chris finally obeyed, walking inside with her mother. Lita, who stood with her hands covering her mouth, looked at Rob once. He made eye contact with her and she quickly turned away to follow Chris and his mother into the kitchen. Chris sat in the island chair, disheveled and slouching. He stared at the floor, disturbingly calm and quiet.

The redhead looked to his mother who blew an exasperated breath of air out. The older woman ran a hand through her hair and then looked at Lita. Her eyes told a story almost. Her look was completely sympathetic and apologetic. Lita knew right then that Chris had told his mother everything. She walked up to the older woman and whispered to her. "Can I talk to Chris and try to calm him? I'm sorry about all of this."

The woman placed a caring hand on Lita's face. "Sure sweetie. And you have nothing to be sorry about." She left Lita there in the kitchen with Chris.

Lita turned to face her boyfriend. He sat there, still staring at the floor and breathing heavily. She walked over to him and stood directly in front of him. He didn't budge at all. "Can I see your hands?" She held out her own as he placed his clenched fists in them. She cringed at the redness of his right fist. One of his knuckles was bruised. She walked over to the refrigerator, grabbing some paper towels along the way, and wrapped up some ice. She brought it back over to her boyfriend and held it against his bruised knuckle.

"That didn't feel good, did it?" He didn't answer her, but she could read the answer in his face. "You still love him. And that's okay. You don't have to hate him for what he did. I'm so sorry that you're hurting." Chris still didn't budge, but his facial expression seemed to soften a little bit.

"Can you open your hands for me?" He obeyed, stretching his fingers. He attempted to close his hands, but struggled a little more with his right hand. She laughed softly. "We're gonna have to go to the hospital now."

She handed him the icepack, which he pressed against the bruised knuckle himself. She placed her hands on his knees. She sighed. "You should forgive him Chris. He obviously needs help. He has a problem. And I think he needs your support. You told me yourself that he doesn't realize what he's doing when he's drunk. That doesn't excuse what happened. But if we can take this and make it something positive for him…that would be incredible."

Chris looked up from the ground for the first time and looked into her eyes. She nodded her approval to him. If finding the strength to forgive Rob herself would help Chris, then that's what she needed to do. "I'm sure things will probably never be the same between the two of you, but he's your cousin."

Chris looked in the direction of the living room where his father and Rob probably were. He stood from the island chair. He clutched her hand in his left hand and walked in the direction of the living room. He walked through the entry way and found his cousin sitting on the couch with his two parents. Rob immediately made eye contact with Chris.

"Chris, I'm so-"

"Save it. Look. I'm sure you know exactly what I think of you. So we can bypass that. I told you so many times before that you had a problem. I told you that you needed help and I offered to help you get it. But you just wouldn't listen. I can never forget what you did. I'm through with you Rob. I just hope that you take this and get your sorry life together."

Rob nodded. He'd finally been informed of what he'd done. He looked to his cousin once more. "I know this doesn't mean anything. But I really am sorry." He looked to his aunt and uncle next as he stood from the couch. "I'm so sorry to disappoint you. I really am."

He finally brought his gaze to Lita. She squeezed Chris's hand to keep him from flipping out on Rob again. "Lita, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I hope that one day you find it in your heart to forgive me and recover."

She sighed. "I forgive you Rob. I just hope that you get the help you need before you hurt someone else. You're really lucky because people don't usually get a second chance when they do what you did."

He nodded. He slowly turned and made his way for the door, walking shamefully. The four occupants of the house watched in silence as he exited. Ted Irvine fell back against the couch with the click of the door. "What a day." Chris's mother stood and walked over to her son.

"You are too much like your father. Are you okay?"

"Yeah mom." She pulled him into his arms and hugged him. He hugged her back, releasing Lita's hand for the first time.

His mother then released him and embraced Lita. "Sweetheart, I can not describe to you how sorry I am that that happened to you. You should feel safe here and I'm sorry that has been ruined for you. If you ever need anything, just let us know and we'll do what we can."

"Ditto that," Ted popped in from the couch.

Lita smiled as the embrace ended. "Thank you. I think I have what I need now." She looked to Chris and smiled. A tiny smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"Well, let's not let this day be entirely ruined then. Ted, why don't you set up the grill and make some steak?"

"Oh ma, I don't think we have time for that. According to Lita, I have to go to the hospital."

Her eyes lit up immediately from maternal instinct. "What's wrong?"

"Don't worry Mom. It's nothing serious. I think I just bruised my knuckle outside. We're just gonna get it checked out." He walked up to her and hugged her. "It was good seeing you. I'll call you." She smiled back and said okay. Lita hugged Chris's mother as well, saying her goodbye.

"Dad, I'll see ya later." Ted stood from the couch and hugged his son.

"Make it real soon. We don't see you enough."

"Okay dad."

Lita then hugged Mr. Irvine. "It was good to see you again."

"You too darling. Keep my son in check please."

"Will do. Bye."

Chris and Lita exited the house with Chris's parents standing in the doorway. They waved as they got in the car, Lita in the driver's seat. Lita stepped on the gas pedal and released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"You did it. And you handled it very well too." Chris said, while slouching in his seat.

"Thanks. It wasn't so bad." She glanced at him, smirking. He laughed at her sarcasm.

"I am definitely not looking forward to spending hours in a hospital waiting room."

"You should have thought about that before you went crazy on your cousin." There were a few moments of silence.

"Stop the car."

"What? In the middle of the road?"

"There's no other cars or anything. Just stop it for a moment."

Lita looked in the rearview mirror, then slowed the car to a stop. She then looked over to the passenger seat. "Now wh-"

Her words were cut off as he kissed her. The kiss was almost paralyzing. Even though it lasted only a couple of seconds, there was so much passion and intensity. He pulled back. "That's all." He smiled, causing her to smile. "Let's go now."

She shook her head at him and continued the drive to the hospital.

Author's Note: Finally, here we go. Review, review, review! I really love them.


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